During the recent pay revision, civil servants saw an increase of 55 to 74 per cent in the minimum pay scale across all position levels. However, the thirteen State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) under the finance ministry are facing financial difficulties with some SOEs able to provide pay raises while others are struggling with revenue issues that could make it hard to provide similar benefits.
Just a month ago, civil servants received the long-anticipated pay hike. The move was widely applauded. However, in a different situation, employees of State-Owned Enterprises are waiting to see if they will also get their pay raise.
While the delay has raised eyebrows and sparked questions among its employees, the 13 SOEs have submitted proposals to the government. The proposals include the pay hike percentage, expenses for re-engineering and the amount of revenue needed for a pay hike among others.
Talking to the CEO of all the 13 SOEs, many said they will be able to afford pay raises. However, the SOEs that mentioned facing challenges are those with social responsibilities. These SOEs either have to offer services for free or at very affordable rates. As a result, they said increasing wages might require additional efforts or adjustments due to their obligations.
“In the reengineering of expenses, we are trying to reduce the unwanted and unnecessary expenses. We are also trying to use more technology as a digital transformation that will help us in reducing overall operating expenses. Every year, our surplus is not less than Nu 2bn. There will be some organic growth in the years to come as in the past so that will also help us in absorbing additional costs that will come as a part of the pay revision,” said Dorji Penjor, CEO of National Pension Provident Fund.
“We have already submitted the pay revision proposal to DMFDF under the finance ministry. In that, we have already mentioned that the extra requirement for the pay revision will be met from expenditure reengineering. Under that, we have mentioned that we will add one extra online lottery product. And also add additional payment options so that customers can choose and have options for buying lotteries,” said Phenphay R Drukpa, CEO of Bhutan Lottery Limited.
“So we have been doing quite well in terms of revenue and also from the beginning of the year, we have been trying to optimise expenses and also we have done quite well, For example from January up until now, within the last seven months, about 21 of them resigned from our company and we have not replaced any one of them. Inspired by the civil service, we were trying to build a small, compact and efficient employee, HR system. So through that, we were able to make some savings and also we have transformed completely to e-governance, trying to reduce cost on the stationaries and we have actively pursued multitasking at all levels,” said Dorji Tashi, CEO of Food Corporation of Bhutan.
Some companies like Bhutan Duty-Free Limited, National Housing Development Corporation Limited and Bhutan Development Bank shared similar positivity.
However, Green Bhutan Corporation Limited and Bhutan Post said although they can afford to give pay hikes for now they need to work harder to keep doing well.
In a different situation, the National CSI Development Bank said that they can manage the cost of salary adjustments for its existing 39 employees using the funds saved from previous employees who have left.
However, the bank added that as National CSI Development Bank and BDBL are anticipating a merger by the end of this year, the CSI bank has proposed a 50 per cent pay hike which is at par with BDBL.
However, SOEs that are struggling with financial constraints are having a hard time making money which puts them in a difficult situation. They have to make a tough choice in keeping their employees happy while also being careful with their finances.
The Bhutan Livestock Development Corporation this time has no revision due to their financial constraints.
Meanwhile, the Kuensel is planning to revise although they said they need to put in more effort and reduce expenses to make about an additional Nu 4.5 M this year.
The Bhutan Broadcasting Service, on the other hand, said that they will not be able to afford pay revision from its own revenue as they are not a commercial broadcaster. The CEO of BBS said that their primary role is to keep the public informed, not to make revenue. He added it would be wrong to expect SOEs such as the BBS that have social mandates to also be able to generate large amounts of revenue.
Meanwhile, the Farm Machinery Corporation Limited or FMCL is still figuring out if they can afford the pay hike.
There are more than 2,300 employees in the 13 SOEs. And as employees eagerly await the government’s approval of the pay raise, there’s a shared hope that all SOEs will boost their employees’ morale by providing attractive compensation packages that acknowledge their hard work.
Samten Dolkar & Tashi Yangden
Edited by Sonam Pem
