The Council of Ministers decided today, to move forward with a proposal for a law to revise downwards thethe salaries and allowances of public office holders, namely Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Secretaries of State (SE), Members of Parliament, among others, said the Minister of Economy and Finance, Max Tonela. The measure does not affect other civil servants.

Speaking at a press conference after the session, Max Tonela said that this was an issue that had been raised repeatedly with the government by the Assembly of the Republic.

He considered that the downward revision will improve the wage bill and is in perfect alignment with the structural reforms to be implemented by the government, as well as bringing greater rigor to the process "and demonstrates the government's determination to ensure wage justice in the public administration".

"Law No. 5/2022 of February 14 essentially aims to reduce the wage gap between the top and the bottom, to achieve wage balance between the same professional careers and to reduce the weight of salary expenditure on Gross Domestic Product, which in recent years had an increasing trend and placed Mozambique with an indicator outside what is the standard, and the prospect is that in the medium term, with the introduction of the reform, there will be a tendency for the weight of salary on GDP to converge from levels of around 14% to 8%, which is the average for the region.", explained Tonela.

"The proposal also aims to resolve the issue associated with the remuneration of the members of the provincial assemblies, which should be corrected, due to the amounts established that go against the principle of fair pay, since they are much higher than those of executive members at provincial levels, as well as professionals from various sectors of the state," he said.

Meanwhile, "the government will maintain unchanged the Single Salary Scale applied to other civil servants as approved by the Council of Ministers last January".

According to Max Tonela, the proposal considered today by the Council will be submitted to the National Assembly in the next few days.

This is Law no. 5/2022 of February 14, which defines the rules and criteria for setting the remuneration of public servants, holders or members of public bodies and holders and members of the bodies of the administration of justice and approves the Single Salary Table, amended and republished by Law no. 14/2022 of October 10.