Punjab government has delayed the salaries and pensions of its employees with special permission of Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif, sources told Pakistan Today on Wednesday. They said that the government amended the Punjab Financial Rules (PFR) for delaying the salaries and pensions of its employees and now the employees would get the salary of June after July 5. It is a routine that the salaries/pensions of the employees are transferred around 30th of every month but because of poor financial situation of the province the rules were relaxed and salaries delayed.
According to the PFR section 2.16, “Cheques remain current for three months only after the month of issue [or June 30 of the financial year, in which they are issued, whichever is earlier]”. The rules describe that the Punjab government cannot utilise any cheque that is issued in a previous fiscal year.
“Any cheque that is issued on or before June 30 cannot be used after July 1,” said a senior government official, adding that this rule was a problem in delaying the salaries therefore the officials seek ‘help’ from the Punjab CM. “Only the Punjab CM, as chief executive of the province can relax the rules and he did so hence the salaries and pensions were delayed,” said the official. There would be a bank holiday on July 1 and a half day on July 2, followed by a Sunday on July 3, thus the employees would get pensions and salaries at least after July 4, he added.
The sources said that the monthly bill of pensions and salaries was around Rs 23 billion and the government delayed it in order to entertain its contractors. The government was under tremendous pressure because of a shortage of funds for the last two years and often had to delay the salaries of its employees. Steps like sasti roti scheme and subsidy on flour put extra burden on the government, resulting in stoppage of development works. However, this time the problem was technical problem as the PFR did not allow the government to entertain previous financial year’s cheque in the next fiscal year.
The government stopped paying any bills after June 22 and was not issuing any cheques after June 25. “All these steps are taken to save the skin of the Punjab government, otherwise, according to the rules of State bank of Pakistan (SBP), the cheques of Punjab government would be dishonoured,” said an official, adding that the government would get money from federal government in the next fiscal year and would use it for disbursement of salaries for the previous month. “They are just passing days and have no long term planning,” he added.
