Pakistanis are suffering because of increasing prices and are waiting for a sigh of relief from the government since the rupee has lost almost 20% of its value since the beginning of the year.
According to sources, government employees might expect a wage increase of up to 50% in the upcoming budget.
According to a report in the Daily Jang, the Sharif-led government has decided to enhance the salaries of public sector employees by up to 50 percent in its final budget before elections, as well as 30 percent increases in pensions for retired government workers.
It said that no final decision has been made as of now as Finance Minister will finalise a strategy in this regard in upcoming meetings. The federal government is also considering to raise the monthly minimum wage of laborers to Rs40000 as people are struggling to pay for basic commodities.
Previously, the government wanted to provide citizens with relief on petrol, but the International Monetary Fund prohibited Pakistan from providing any subsidies without prior clearance.
While giving the cash-strapped nation a hard time, the global lender published a Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) in which it stated that the Pakistani government will not grant any more subsidies without its prior consent.
Moreover, IMF wants Islamabad to further increase its interest rates maintaining that higher rates are crucial to fight inflation and lowering the country’s current account deficit.
Lately, Consumer Price Index (CPI) based monthly inflation skyrocketed to an all-time high of 36.4% on a year-over-year basis in April 2023 compared to 35.4% in the previous month and 13.4% in April 2022. This is the highest rate of inflation in South Asia.