July 31, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 30: The government on Wednesday revised rental ceiling for hiring residential accommodation for its employees by 15 per cent in six major cities—Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta, Karachi and Peshawar.

According to a notification issued here, the revised ceilings for employees in all basic pay scales (BPS) are:

The above rental ceilings will come into force with effect from July 1, 2003 and it will apply for all cases of fresh hiring.

The new ceiling would be applied in the cases where the occupant is obliged to pay difference of rent to the owner out of his own resources. In such cases, rent may be increased upto the owners’s demand.

However, the ministry for housing and works has demanded of the finance ministry to allow 15 per cent increase in hiring of private houses for all government employees but not for fresh hiring cases, a source told Dawn. The housing ministry had expressed dissatisfaction over the decision and further sent a proposal to the finance ministry demanding the facility for all government employees.

The finance ministry, he said, was considering the proposal and it will announce it decision within a week.

“If the ministry of finance provides the facility to all government employees, it would be a great relief to them as no increase was made in the hiring of houses for several years,” he said.