Salary increase for Sarawak civil servants not lower than federal counterparts, says Dr Sim

MIRI (May 20): The salary increase for Sarawak civil servants will not be lower than the adjustment rate set by the federal government, but it will also not be “too much”, says Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian.

He said the state government is now waiting for the official announcement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim regarding the salary increase for federal civil servants during the presentation of Budget 2025 at the end of this year, before deciding on the rate increase for state civil servants.

“This is because we don’t want to pay less than the federal government and at the same time we don’t want to pay too much because it can make the federal government feel ’embarrassed’,” the Public Health, Housing and Local Government Minister said.

He said this when to elaborate on what he mentioned earlier in his speech at the flag-raising ceremony held in conjunction with Miri City’s 19th anniversary today.

Dr Sim in his speech said Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg had already asked Putrajaya about the salary adjustment of federal civil servants following the announcement by the prime minister on May 1, but had not received any answer yet.

However, he said the Premier had given assurances that the Sarawak government will give a better adjustment than the federal government.

Regarding the allowance of councillors which is under the jurisdiction of his ministry, Dr Sim said Abang Johari had already agreed to increase their allowance but the amount had yet to be decided.

“The Premier has agreed to increase the allowance of councillors in the state, but the amount has not been decided, because at the same time, he also needs to consider the allowance of Ketua Kaum and Ketua Masyarakat (KMKK),” he said.

At the moment, the councillor’s allowance is RM300, not including the attendance allowance of RM100 per meeting which is paid no more than seven times or maximum RM700, while the allowance for KMKK is RM900 (Ketua Kaum) and RM1,300 (Ketua Masyarakat).

Also present at the ceremony were Dr Sim’s deputy ministers Datuk Dr Penguang Manggil and Datuk Michael Tiang, and Miri mayor cum Pujut assemblyman Adam Yii.