An article in today’s issue of economic daily Hospodarske Noviny points to how the salaries of constitutional officials such as MPs, the President and the Prime Minister could increase by an average of around 10% from January next year.
The figures come from the latest draft budget from the workshop of the Ministry of Finance, according to which MPs could see an additional EUR 427 a month added to their current gross salary of EUR 1,961. This is also because their salaries are now linked proportionately to how well the public deficit is doing.
If the deficit were to grow, MPs salaries would be cut, but given the size of the deficit inherited by the current government in June last year, any further deepening was unlikely, especially as the government started saving money left, right and centre.
Even so, public servants like fire-fighters and police and customs officers will not see such a handsome hike in their salaries, and might even have to suffer cuts, which is the probable scenario for customs officers, thanks also to the merger of tax and customs collection.
With such sweeping reforms and cost-cutting going on, many would question the fairness of such hikes for MPs etc., but in reality the hikes might not be so significant, especially as the budget is still under discussion.