The continued growth in civil servant employment and retirement emoluments will still be sustainable if the country’s revenue growth outpaces them, said Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
"Emoluments will go up every year because every year we will revise the salary. The same goes for pension payments because the number of retiring staff increases every year.
"But as long as our revenue moves faster than (emolument) cost, we should be able to sustain," he told a press conference at Parliament today.
Earlier today, Zafrul unveiled Budget 2023 which involves an allocation of RM372.3 billion.
Of this amount, RM272.3 billion or 73.1 percent will be allocated for operating expenditure and RM95 billion or 25.5 percent for development expenditure.
Emoluments for civil servants remain the largest component, making up one-third of the operating expenditure.
"The component is estimated to increase by 4.9 percent to RM90.8 billion, mainly due to the provision of special annual salary increment for civil servants as well as absorption of contract officers to permanent positions, particularly in the health and education services," said the Finance Ministry in its 2023 Fiscal Outlook and Federal Government Revenue Estimates report released today.
Meanwhile, retirement charges are estimated to increase by 1.4 percent to RM29.1 billion representing 10.7 percent of operating expenditure.
A total of RM21.9 billion or 75.3 percent of retirement charges comprise pension payments for about 958,700 pensioners and beneficiaries.
The remaining are mainly for gratuity payments and cash awards in lieu of accumulated leave.
[More to follow] - Mkini
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