Government employees ponder higher salaries

by Mungpi

Tuesday, 24 March 2009 15:33

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Government employees in Burma speculate there could be a raise in their monthly salaries following Burmese New Year in April. A secretary of a Township Peace and Development Council in Mandalay, Burma’s second largest city, said rumors have been spreading among government employees that there will be an increase in their monthly salary. “It is being said that we might have a three-fold hike in our salaries after the Thingyan festival [Burmese New Year],” the secretary told Mizzima via telephone. She added that rumors suggest it will be about a 300 percent hike. The secretary, however, said the information has not yet been officially announced. “Now I am getting a monthly salary of 30,000 kyat [USD 25]," she noted. "If the information is true, I will be getting 90,000 kyat [approximately USD 80].” Similarly, a police officer in Rangoon said he has been aware of the rumor about the salary hike, but said the purported financial offing will nonetheless not really help the peoples’ living condition, as it will further boost inflation. “As soon as there is a salary hike, the prices of commodities will shoot-up, and it will make no difference in our living condition,” reasoned the police officer. In April 2006, Burma’s military authorities introduced a comprehensive increase in the payment of government employees – ranging from military head of state Senior General Than Shwe to road sweepers – equivalent to 500 to 1,000 percent of salaries at the time. Following the 2006 hike, prices of commodities such as rice, cooking oil and other foodstuffs increased ten to 20 percent. < Prev   Next >