LAHORE, June 11: The Punjab will incur an additional burden of Rs7 billion as a consequence of 15 per cent raise in salaries and pensions of government employees announced in the budget for 2003-04.

Officials told Dawn here on Wednesday that the previous raise of 20 per cent in salaries and pensions of the government employees given by the federal government three years ago had led to an additional burden of Rs17 billion on the provincial exchequer.

They said there were 750,000 government employees in the province while another 100,000 posts were lying vacant. The province was paying Rs3.8 billion on account of salaries to its employees every month.

The provincial government plans to fill another 25,000 vacancies — 15,000 in education, 5,000 in health and 5,000 in the remaining departments — during the next fiscal year.

The salaries and pensions have been raised on the recommendations of the Pay and Pension Commission given three years ago. The commission had recommended 35 per cent increase in the salaries and pensions of the government employees.