Hike in lecturers' salaries will cost extra MVR 52m
"These are globally competitive salaries that we are paying despite our economy", Ameer said.
By
Aishath Fareeha Abdulla
With the hike in salaries of lecturers and staff of universities and changes in their pay structure, the government said on Monday that it will be spending an additional MVR 52.1 million this year alone.
From this month onwards, the government has announced a hike in the salaries of lecturers and university employees, with an increase of around 59%.
According to the statistics revealed by Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer at a press conference held at the President's Office on Monday to give more details about the decision to increase the salaries of university employees:
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An additional MVR 5.2 million per month to be spent
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This year alone, MVR 52.1 million will be spent
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MVR 62.5 million annually to be spent
The minister also released the number of employees whose salaries were hiked. According to the figures released by the Minister:
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625 National University (MNU) employees to get pay hike
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Islamic University (IUM) hikes salaries for 124 employees
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18 polytechnic employees to get pay hike
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767 university employees to get pay hike
Ameer said that the expenditure on the budget due to the increase in salaries has already been budgeted. Therefore, he has devised ways to raise funds for these expenses, he said.
The minister's assurance is that even if the expenditure on salaries increases, it will not be difficult to manage the government's expenses. Those expenses will be sustained, Ameer said.
"We are pursuing the policies in the budget so that we can migrate to the pay framework that will be included in the budget passed by parliament in 2023. So even if there is a budget deficit, we have everything accounted for in the budget. We won’t be going out of the budget," Ameer said.
He said the policies were included in the budget keeping in mind that they would migrate to the pay framework.
"So, I am confident that the budget will be sustained. In order to get financing, in the financing gap, we will now be able to get unsequid financing in the same way that we do in other years," he said, reiterating that the salary revision is done by planning.
Ameer said that with this change, the higher education and training sectors will see significant improvements.
"Our academic profession is going to grow a lot. I believe that the academic profession of the country will grow at par with the rest of the world and the field will grow further," Ameer said.
"These are globally competitive salaries that we are paying despite our economy."
