The raise however doesn’t apply to DHI owned companies

Pay: The Cabinet last Tuesday decided to raise the salary of the state-owned enterprises or corporations, Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay said yesterday.

“The consensus was that there is a need to raise the salary for the corporate employees as well,” Lyonchhoen said.

This raise however does not apply to those companies under the Druk Holding and Investments. The Cabinet would soon issue a press release regarding the decision.

On January 7, finance secretary Lam Dorji had said that the finance ministry has not decided anything on the corporate salary raise.

He had said that the ministry has to propose the revision, which would be put up to the Cabinet for approval.

The Prime minister’s announcement comes more than six months after salaries for civil servants were revised in July last year.

At a meet-the-press session last October, Lyonchhoen said the government would not interfere and that it does not have unilateral authority to increase salaries and allowance.

He also said that in earlier revisions, corporate employees’ salaries were maintained 15 percent higher than the salary of civil servants. But the raise would depend on how much the companies can afford.

Civil servants were given a 20 percent raise on the salary scale of 2006 in January 2011. Later in December that year, corporate employees were given a 15 percent pay hike, with an additional 20 percent corporate allowance. The revision was applied retroactively from July.

By Tshering Palden