A decision on whether to raise the salaries of military personnel, civil servants and teachers starting next year will be left to the administration of president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Directorate General of Accounting and Statistics Minister Hsu Chang-yao (�?�) said on Saturday.
Hsu said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on “whether salaries should be raised or not and what the adjustment level should be.”
STRATEGIES
He made the remarks after Ma said that in the face of import-induced inflation, his administration’s short-term strategy will be to expand domestic demand, while its middle and long-term strategies would be to increase incomes, with salary hikes for military personnel, civil servants and teachers one of the options under consideration.
Hsu said that when Premier Chang Chun-hsiung’s (張俊雄) Cabinet mulled raising salaries for military personnel, civil servants and teachers last year, it took consumer prices and the economy into account, but also this year’s presidential and legislative elections.
“To avoid giving the impression that the salary hikes were aimed at wooing ballots from those groups, Chang’s Cabinet decided against them,” he said. “The Cabinet also thought that 2009 would be a suitable time to make the adjustment.”
Hsu said that if salaries were raised by 3 percent, the central government would have to cover additional costs of around NT$18.5 billion (US$612.17 million).
Central Personnel Administration Director Chou Hung-hsien (周弘憲) also said that the Executive Yuan usually decides whether to raise salaries in July or August, prior to preparing the general budget for the following year.
CONSUMER PRICES
Chou said the Executive Yuan’s decision against salary hikes for this year took into consideration the relatively stable consumer prices and the government’s financial situation, as well as the fact that salaries in the private sector had not seen any dramatic increases.
The Democratic Progressive Party administration raised salaries for military personnel, civil servants and teachers in 2001 and 2005, both times by 3 percent.
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