Photo: MIMs General News
We are all familiar with the high allowance some ministers may get, but just how unreasonable are we talking about here?
A recent tweet alleging that ministers have a higher parking allowance than doctors’ salaries has taken over the internet, with 16.4k retweets at the time of writing. Posted by Twitter user @amirull18, the tweet comes attached with a picture of the benefits our ministers receive - parking allowance itself is a whopping RM5,700, with an accumulated monthly pay of RM52,557.
The internet was not pleased. Some pointed out how much debt our country is in and that the ministers’ base salary is already pretty high, even without the extra allowances. Another netizen asked if the parking allowance was meant for those who parked in KLCC for a month without ever leaving the premises. Despite KLCC’s infamously pricey parking, we think there should still be leftovers from the RM 5,700 after a month of parking there.
Photo: Malaysiakini
While some tried to turn it into a political issue, Amirul followed up by saying that this was not about Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Harapan. In fact, it was about how the government can save up - by reducing the ministers’ extremely high allowances instead of cutting back on civil servants’ pay rates.
This came about after the Public Service Department (JPA) announced on 20 December that those joining the civil service come 1 January 2020 will no longer be receiving an additional allowance of RM 750/month. This used to fall under the Critical Service Incentive Payment (BIPK) and according to JPA, these jobs were “not critical”.
"As a matter of principle, the BIPK allocation is not permanent and can be withdrawn when the relevant service schemes are no longer critical," JPA said in an FAQ accompanying its circular.
While we understand the need to cut back on costs, we are not sure this is the best way to go around it!
What are your thoughts on the matter?
By: Celestine Foo
