The government has finally approved much-delayed monetisation of transport facility for government officials promised by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez in his budget speech in response to growing demand for rationalisation of current expenditure.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani approved a summary of the Finance Ministry after three months' delay to implement monetization of transport facility for civil servants BPS-20 to 22 as part of austerity plan. A summary was sent to the Prime Minister office by the Finance Ministry in the last week of Ramazan for approval to implement the plan, saving Rs 3 billion on account of current transport expenditure for officials of Grade 20 and above.
An official said monetization of transport and accommodation by the federal and provincial governments is very critical for fiscal management. So, now the provinces, whose role has become very crucial in fiscal management after the approval of 18th Constitutional Amendment and NFC, also need to move towards the monetization. Such measures would be of great help to the federal and provincial economic teams.
The plan is to be enforced from the beginning of next calendar year because the government would required at least 20 days from now onwards to fulfil the procedural requirements before implementation of the decision. According to the plan, the government would be able to save Rs 200 million on account of fuel and more than half of Rs 3 billion earmarked in the budget for maintenance of vehicles as well as Rs 20 million for purchase of new vehicles in current fiscal year.
A statement from the Prime Minister Secretariat stated that the Prime Minister approved the rules/policy for "Compulsory Monetization of Transport Facility for Civil Servants (BPS-20 to 22). The rules/policy was formulated in line with the decision of the Cabinet in its meeting held on 03-06-2011. The application of the monetization policy will be compulsory for all Civil Servants (BS-20 to 22) as per the approved parameters.
The salient features of the proposed policy included complete ban on purchase of staff cars, no officer of BS-20 to BS-22 will be entitled and authorised to use project vehicles or the Departmental Operational/General Duty vehicles for any kind of duty, services of the regular permanent driver will be offered to BS-20 to BS-22 civil servants on optional basis on deduction of Rs 10,000 per month from the monetised value with no new recruitment of drivers. The implementation of the policy would result in savings of about Rs 1.369 billion per annum.