Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (
Cheng made the remarks in response to a story yesterday in the Chinese-language United Daily News that the government is experiencing serious financial problems and was not planning to raise public servants' salaries next year.
"This story is totally wrong. The raises for public servants' paychecks will definitely be implemented next year, no matter what," he said.
Cheng said that no details or decisions on the size of the raises will be made now.
He said all the pay raise proposals would be submitted to the Cabinet's Central Personnel Administration as usual early next month.
The administration will then evaluate the proposals while considering inflation, GDP and the government's finances before deciding whether to approve or adjust the proposals.
"As a result, public servants' paychecks will definitely be adjusted next year. What you read in the newspaper this morning was not true," Cheng said.
"Once the premier approves the proposals, the Ministry of Finance and the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics will figure out a way to fix the [government's] financial problem, if there is one," he said.
The directorate also said that its officials would begin to review and arrange the government's budget for this year today. Agency official said it was too early to talk about pay raises for next year.
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