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The government is struggling to shore up its revenue collection that fell short of the half-yearly target and mobilise resources enough to implement the recommendations of the National Pay Commission, sources said.
"The current revenue shortfall puts the government in a difficult situation to cover its enhanced expenditure required for the implementation of the new pay scale," an official source said.
A preliminary estimate suggested that the overall revenue collection fell short of target by over Tk 8.0 billion during the July-December period of the 2004-05 fiscal.
Official sources, however, hinted that the revenue shortfall might force the government to go slow in the implementation of the new pay scale.
Taking a sizeable revenue shortfall into active consideration, the government has already directed the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to boost its revenue collection.
The ministry of finance has already held a series of meetings with the NBR authorities and asked them to gear up their revenue collection drive to help meet the additional expenditure required for raising the salaries of the government officials, said an official.
The NBR officials, however, attributed the current revenue shortfall to an economic slowdown now being experienced due to the latest devastating floods.
"We have already geared up the collection drive aimed at covering up the current shortfall," a senior NBR official said predicting a significant rise in the government's revenue earnings in the months ahead.
The government in its current budget has earmarked around Tk 89.87 billion for the payment of salaries/allowances of its officials and employees. The allocation is around 26 per cent of the government's total non-development expenditures for the 2004-05 fiscal, according to sources.
The National Pay Commission has already prepared its draft report and planned to submit it to the government by the end of this month, the commission source told the FE recently.
Referring to the draft report, sources also hinted that the Commission was likely to recommend sizeable increase in the basic salaries for the government officials.
The new pay commission was formed on July 10 last year as per the commitment made by the government in its 2004-05 budget.
Finance Minister Saifur Rahman has also announced that whenever the new pay scale is announced, it would be effective from January 2005.
Official sources said the government might make a delay in the announcement of the pay scale so that it gets some time breathing to enhance the revenue earnings.
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