The Cabinet said it is considering increasing the salaries of all civil servants, military personnel and teachers by 3 percent if the economy continues to improve.
"We thought it was time and only fair to increase the monthly salaries of civil servants, armed forces personnel and teachers since the economy has picked up steam and their monthly salaries have remained the same for the past three years," said Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).
The Cabinet's proposal came after the pan-blue camp promised to increase salaries for lower-ranking civil servants to twice the level of per capita GNP.
While the Central Personnel Administration is mapping out details of the Cabinet's proposal, Lin said he hopes to see the plan go into effect on Jan. 1 next year after it is approved by a Cabinet resolution.
Some 880,000 armed forces personnel, civil servants and teachers stand to benefit from the change, which would cost the central and local governments NT$20.5 billion a year.
"I don't think we'd have any problem paying the bills if economic growth reaches the projected goal of 5 percent and the jobless rate continues to drop," he said.
Lin made the remarks yesterday morning after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
He said the pan-blue camp's proposed salary hike was irresponsible and would damage state finances.
"While our plan would cost only NT$20.5 billion, its plan would cost the central and local governments NT$190 billion annually, making the government's annual spending on the salaries of civil servants the world's highest," he said.
Under the blue camp's plan, the average annual incomes of civil servants whose position ranked between one and five on the government's 14-point scale -- a higher number indicates a higher salary -- would be increased from the current NT$510,000 to NT$800,000, or from 1.29 times per capita income to two times per capita income.
Questioning the feasibility of the plan, Lin said that the opposition alliance's proposal was aimed winning votes from civil servants.
"We're very sorry to learn of such a plan, which shows not only the pan-blue camp's ignorance and impulsiveness but also its conspicuous attempt to buy votes for the presidential election," he said. "I'm calling on the opposition alliance not to underestimate the wisdom of the electorate and to rule out unfeasible pork barrel policies in the run-up to the election."
Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋), director-general of the Central Personnel Administration, said the pan-blue camp's proposal would leave more debt to the next generation.
"I doubt that its plan would work because it's tantamount to increasing the monthly salaries of those civil servants by 56 percent," he said. "If their salaries were increased, what about those salaries for other civil servants?"
According to Lee, if the monthly salaries of civil servants whose position ranked between one and five were to be made two times per capita GNP, it would only be fair to make the monthly salaries of civil servants whose position ranked between six and 14 between 2.5 and 3.3 times per capita GNP.
It would cost the government an additional NT$61.9 billion annually for civil servants, NT$32.2 billion for the armed forces, NT$50.4 billion for teachers and NT$45.9 billion for retirees.
Central Personnel Administration statistics showed that while the average annual incomes of civil servants whose position ranked between one and five are NT$510,000, or about 1.29 times per capita income, those of civil servants whose position ranked between six and nine are NT$763,000, or 1.93 times per capita GNP, and those of civil servants whose position ranked between 10 and 14 are NT$1.14 million, or 2.89 times per capita GNP.
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