To the disappointment of officers of autonomous and semi-autonomous organisations, corporations, as well as officers receiving salaries for constitutionary posts appointed on contract, reemployed or persons appointed on Management Pay Scales, Special Pay Scales and Health Personnel Scales, the Cabinet Division, in a revised decision, has excluded them from the list of beneficiaries of the monetisation of transport facility. However, these officers and the officers in BS-20 to BS-22 who are not civil servants and working in the ministries and divisions on deputation and secondment shall continue to avail their existing entitlement of transport facility. The Cabinet Division had announced on December 12 rules for monetisation of transport facility for civil servants, saying that the facility would be compulsory for all civil servants in BS-20 to BS-22.
Under the policy, civil servants who have been provided official transport would be given the first option to purchase the allocated car on a depreciated price. However, the policy was not clear and the Pakistan Revenues accountant general on December 21 put several queries to the division, which “needed further clarification for proper implementation of the policy”. In reply to the queries, the division said the policy was applicable only to the civil servants in BS-20 to BS-22 working in ministries/divisions/attached departments and subordinate offices. It added that the policy was not applicable to the officers of autonomous/semi-autonomous organisations, corporations, as well as to the officers receiving salaries for constitutionary posts appointed on contract, reemployed or persons appointed on Management Pay Scales, Special Pay Scales and Health Personnel Scales.
In clarification to accountant general’s queries, the Cabinet Division stated further that officers performing duties of the posts of BS-20 on current/acting charge basis were not entitled to the monetisation policy. The revised policy further stated that the policy for monetisation of transport was not applicable in case of project vehicles. The civil servants posted in corporations or semi-autonomous and autonomous bodies and provincial governments shall avail the facility after their repatriation to the federal government, unless such organisations or provincial governments decided to adopt the policy.
To a further query, the Cabinet Division stated that in case of in-service death before completion of recovery, the remaining amount would be deducted from commutation and other payables to the deceased and the vehicle may be transferred to the next of kin. It said the amount deducted from the salary of officers on account of driver services shall not be considered as reduction in gross income for income tax purposes.
Civil servants working on a contractual basis or reemployed after retirement termed the decision discriminatory. Council for Islamic Ideology Secretary Muhammad Ahmad Chaudhry, who was reemployed after superannuation in BS-20, said the reemployed officers had been unjustifiably deprived of the policy benefits. He said the government must review the policy and also consider including the reemployed officers in the list of beneficiaries of the monetisation policy.