June 12, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 11: The federal budget for the year 2008-09 envisages an increase of 20 per cent in the basic pays and pensions of all federal government and defence services employees.

The minimum pension of government and defence service employees have been increased to Rs2,000 from Rs300.

In his budget speech in the National Assembly, Finance Minister Naveed Qamar announced a 100 per cent increase in the conveyance allowance of government employees serving in Basic Pay Scale (BPS) of 1 to 19.

He also announced a small increase of Rs75 in the medical allowance of employees in the BPS-1 to 16 by raising it to Rs500 from Rs425 per month.

The minimum wage has been increased from Rs4,600 to Rs6,000.

A pay and pension commission will also be set up to review the pay and pension of government employees and make recommendations for possible improvements.

Government employees unable to work because of illness, accident, earthquake or acts of terrorism will get complete pension benefits because of the abolition of the condition of minimum 10-years of service in such cases.

The minister has proposed regularisation of service of all contractual employees in BPS-1 to 15 in various government departments.

Profit rate of the National Savings Schemes (NSS) are being increased by 2 per cent. The rate will be revised quarterly instead of biannually in order to minimise the gap in return on NSS and the rate of return in the market.

The government has decided to continue with the National Internship Programme launched by the previous government for people who have completed 16 years of education. An estimated 30,000 post-graduates will benefit from the programme next year. The government has allocated Rs1.6 billion for this programme in the budget.