The Supreme Court's order to adjust the salary shakes the budget: the government is in confusion as the burden on Dhukuti will increase by Rs.

When the salaries of about 12,000 employees in three categories are increased, the salaries of the rest of the employees will also be automatically increased and an additional liability of around 1.5 trillion will be created in the salary. A quarter billion is half of the total development expenditure budget last year.

Army, police, civil and public institutions have different structures and corresponding ranks and salaries. However, the order of honor given by the state is different. The salary scale is decided by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Home Affairs. Although the nature of service is different, the Supreme Court has ordered that the basic (starting) salary should be based on dignity. According to the order of merit, number 16 is the joint secretary of the civil service, while number 17 is the assistant charioteer and general of the army. Similarly, DIG and SSP of Nepal Police and Armed Police are also in the same order. However, the salary of Joint Secretary of the 16th grade is 56 thousand 77, while that of DIGs of the 17th grade is 60 thousand 950 and that of SSPs is 56 thousand 77.

Undersecretary of Civil Service is the 18th rank in the order of rank, this is the rank of the chief soldier of the army and the SP of the police. However, the salary of the Deputy Secretary is 48 thousand 737 while that of the security officers is 52 thousand 279. Similarly, the salary of the branch officer, who is at the 20th rank, is 43 thousand 69, while the salary of fellow soldiers of the same rank is 47 thousand 20.

Now, the rules of conduct issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in the gazette on 16 May 2076 are in force. According to the gazette, the order of rank of the governor of Nepal Rastra Bank is number 12. However, the basic salary of the governor is 1 lakh 36 thousand. If the salaries of employees are to be determined according to the order of merit, then the salaries of the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, the General Secretary of the Federal Parliament, the Chief of Army Staff and the Chief Secretary should be more than 136,000. They are like or ahead of the governor in the order of dignity. However, according to the officials of the Ministry of Finance, there is a practice of varying the salary according to the nature of the service.

Associate Attorney Govind Khanal, Deputy Attorneys Santosh Sharma, Padam Bahadur Karki, Vimala Regmi, Yuvraj Mahat, Chapla Pokharel and Prakash Gautam and others filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding that the salaries of the civil service employees working in the gazetted first, second and third category be increased on the basis of equality. were In the writ, a demand was made to raise the salary of the officers of the security agencies in the same rank, claiming that the salary was higher than that of the civil servants.

The joint bench of Supreme Court Justices Manoj Kumar Sharma and Sunil Kumar Pokharel had issued an injunction to increase the salary of the employees. "If the basic salary scale is not maintained for the employees according to the order of merit, it is contrary to the Constitution of Nepal, the provisions of the international legal documents to which Nepal is a party, and even the legal principles propounded by the Supreme Court, and it is seen that there will be a serious blow to their right to equality, taking into account the legitimate expectations and morale of the civil servants," the Supreme Court ordered, "Civil Service The basic salary of gazetted first, second, and third class employees should be adjusted/fixed immediately so that the basic salary is the same as other government service employees in the same rank.'

In the current financial year 081/82, the government has estimated that Rs. According to the order of the Supreme Court, if only the salaries of the three levels of employees are matched, 1 trillion 61 billion 51 million 58 million and if all employees are matched, the total expenditure of the state will be 3 trillion 10 billion 31 million 58 million.

In this financial year, the government has estimated that 2 billion 95 million 94 lakh rupees will be spent for social security expenses of employees including pension. According to the court's decision, if the salary of the employees is increased, the social security will increase by 60 percent of the increased salary, according to sources in the Ministry of Finance. As the revenue and other sources of income of the state have not increased as expected, the government is also finding it difficult to pay the employees according to the current scale. While the government's income is shrinking, the expenditure is increasing at a high rate. In such a situation, experts say that the government's expenditure to increase the salary of the employees may become unsustainable.

Economist Dilliraj Khanal said that even though the salaries of employees of certain levels should be increased according to the court order, the state should not be burdened financially. The Supreme Court had issued an order on June 10 to adjust the salaries of first grade (joint secretary), second grade (deputy secretary) and third grade (branch officer). In order to implement the order of the court, the Ministry of Finance has submitted to the Council of Ministers an estimate of the expenses to be incurred for salary matching according to the order of dignity of the employees. According to the proposal, matching the salaries of the three levels of employees mentioned will cost about 1 billion 45 crore rupees, while increasing the salary and pension according to the effect will cost 1.5 trillion rupees.

In the last two meetings of the Council of Ministers, there has been a discussion about the possibility that if the salary of only three categories of officers is adjusted, the employees of other levels will protest or the court may again order to adjust their salaries. In the previous meeting of the Council of Ministers, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel was questioned by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli saying that the budget should be raised by increasing the salaries of all court employees. It is the decision of the executive whether to increase the salary of the employees or not, it is decided by the budget. Now the question has arisen whether the Ministry of Finance will increase the salary or the court. Let's obey the commandment. But, where will the budget come from to implement it?' According to a minister, the Prime Minister's response was.

Finance Minister Paudel said that according to the court's order, he will present the data saying that it will be difficult to cope with the unexpected situation that has occurred when the government's income has already shrunk. A minister said, "Finance Minister Poudel has given a briefing on the possible additional liability in Thursday's meeting. According to him, if the salaries are adjusted based on the merit order, the salaries of all personnel including civil servants, institutes, police, teachers, and health will be increased by at least 1 trillion rupees.'' He said that he would be in an extraordinary crisis.

The court has asked to adjust the salary immediately. If the salary of all the employees is to be adjusted according to the limit, then the budget brought by the outgoing finance minister Varshman Pun will fail completely. Even when creating a new budget, resources cannot be managed. Even if it is managed, the budget cannot be allocated for capital expenditure,” said a finance official.

Ministry of Finance Spokesperson Uttar Kumar Khatri also confirmed that according to the order of the Supreme Court, a proposal has been sent to the Council of Ministers to adjust the salaries of the three categories of employees, Joint Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Branch Officer. The court has asked to match the salary according to dignity, according to the order, the Ministry of Finance has already sent the proposal to the Council of Ministers. If the decision is taken by the Council of Ministers, it will be implemented. "The decision has not been made yet," he said. In the current financial year, the government has estimated that Rs. When all employees' salaries are matched, the total expenditure becomes about 3 billion. Similarly, it is estimated that 2 billion 95 million 94 lakh rupees will be spent for social security expenses of employees including pension in the financial year.

Also, the income of the government is shrinking while the expenditure is increasing at a high rate. As the revenue and other sources of income of the state are not increasing as expected, it is difficult for the government to pay the current salaries to the employees. Experts say that if the state's expenditure increases to increase the salary of employees, it may become unsustainable. According to economist Dilliraj Khanal, the government should make structural reforms in the government finances because the court order should be followed, because of this, the state will have more financial burden. According to the order of the court, the salary of the designated employees had to be increased. After their salary increases, other employees also ask for that facility, then you can't say they won't give it to you,'' he said. For this, the government should control the expenditure in unproductive and unnecessary areas by making structural reforms in government finances.

Nepal has 85 thousand 396 employees at union, state and local levels. Similarly, there are about 96,000 manpower in the Nepal Army, 80,000 in the Nepal Police and 37,000 in the Armed Police. Similarly, there are about 31,000 employees in health services and 1,91,27 teachers in public schools across the country. However, the permanent posts of teachers are only 1 lakh 8 thousand. Similarly, there are 32 thousand 180 employees in 42 public institutions that are currently operating. Thus, a total of 552,603 ​​national servants are working at the expense of the state of Nepal.