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Civil servants will get pay increase of 3 percent on Jan. 1

The Legislative Yuan's Finance, Budgets and Final Accounts Committee approved a measure yesterday to hike the pay of civil servants by 3 percent and give them a year-end bonus equal to one-and-a-half month's salary. The changes will take effect on Jan. 1.

A budget of NT$21 billion will be allocated for the 3 percent pay hike, including NT$15.1 billion for central government employees, the Cabinet's Central Personnel Administration said yesterday.

The administration's director general, Chu Wu-hsien (朱武獻), said that a 3 percent salary raise would be reasonable because the consumer price index has risen by 1.89 percent this year and projected economic growth for next year is 6.6 percent.

Endorsing Chu's view, Lin Chuan (林全), head of the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, said yesterday that estimated per capita income growth next year would reach 6.83 percent.

"The salary raise for civil servants is unlikely, however, to lead to further [consumer] price fluctuations in the economy," Lin told legislators yesterday.

He also said that civil servants haven't received a pay raise for the last 18 months.

"As for the year-end bonus of one-and-a-half month's salary, it has been the same for many years," an official at the Central Personnel Administration told the Taipei Times yesterday, adding that the estimated total cost of the bonus was not yet available.

Meanwhile, the proposed government reserve fund of NT$12 billion -- the so-called "secondary reserve" (第二預備金) -- was shelved yesterday at the committee and will later be submitted to a joint meeting of all legislative committees for review.

DPP Legislator Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) and KMT Legislator Liu Kuang-hua (劉光華) raised doubts about the fund's use yesterday, urging the Executive Yuan to formulate regulations stating explicitly and transparently how the fund is to be used.

KMT Legislator Chu Li-luan (朱立倫), moreover, raised questions about the fund's purpose, repeating allegations that parts of the fund might be used to supply secret aid to Taiwan's "potential" diplomatic ties.

"If that is the case," Chu said, "then the secondary reserve will become cash gifts (紅包) that the foreign ministry can disburse freely."

According to the Budget Law, however, the Cabinet's secondary reserve is allocated for the purpose of post-disaster reconstruction in the event that natural disasters and other emergencies occur.

The fund can also be used for additional governmental plans that are approved by the Cabinet.
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