Federal government employees, except for those working in public sector corporations, are unlikely to get their salaries on August 1 (today), as protesting employees of the Accountant-General of Pakistan (AGP) have not prepared their payrolls.
An office-bearer of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of AGP said that they had stopped payrolls of employees of Presidency, Prime Minister House as well as Ministries and Division as negotiations of the committee with the Finance Ministry on their service structure and audit allowances remained unsuccessful.
"This is for the first time in my 11-year service that I would not be able to get my salary on time," a public sector employee said. Office bearer of the JAC said that they would need "three to four days" to prepare the payrolls. JAC representatives said that a delegation of AGP office-bearers held a meeting with Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and Secretary Finance Abdul Wajid Rana on Monday, but said that the meeting failed to yield any result.
"We have been demanding a service structure and audit and account allowances as are being given to the employees of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)," he said. He said that AGPR had been collecting Rs 83 billion for the government on account of General Sale Tax (GST) and Income Tax (IT) annually from government contractors, besides contributing to the recovery of Rs 90 billion through the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
JAC members told Business Recorder on condition of anonymity that the promotion criterion had been made more stringent for AGPR employees. He said that the age eligibility limit has been increased to 10 years for the mandatory test for promotion.
The Public Account Committee (PAC) had also taken notice of the issue and asked the Ministry of Finance to appear before the committee to clarify its position. This correspondent repeatedly tried to contact top officials of the Ministry of Finance to get their views on the issue but no one could be contacted on phone.