MANILA, Philippines – The 3rd tranche of the pay adjustment for government workers will be out by January 2018, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno announced on Wednesday, November 22.

According to the budget chief, the government has set aside P24 billion for the 3rd tranche of the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) and would benefit about 1.2 million government workers.

Diokno said that aside from the increase in pay, government employees will also receive midyear and yearend bonus. (READ: These gov’t workers will get P40B in yearend bonuses, cash gifts)

In 2015, former President Benigno Aquino III pushed for the SSL which mandates a 4-year salary increase to the basic salaries of government employees, arguing that government pay is only 55% of market rates. The last tranche will be out in 2019.

Budget, tax reform

Diokno also said he’s hopeful that the 2018 national budget will be approved by December.

“We are optimistic that the fiscal year 2018 budget will be signed on time. We expect it to be approved on the first week of December,” Diokno told reporters.

The second national budget crafted under the Duterte administration, the proposed P3.77-trillion budget is 12.4% higher than last year. The figure represents 21.6% of the projected gross domestic product (GDP) for 2018.

Under the proposed national budget, education and infrastructure departments receive the lion’s share of the pie. (READ: Education, infra to get bulk of proposed 2018 nat’l budget)

Diokno also said “he is confident” that the tax reform bill will be passed into law around the same time. (READ: How will the proposed tax reform package affect Filipinos?)

If passed into law, workers get to have a bigger take-home pay under the proposed tax reform package, but the prices of several commodities will increase.

In an earlier statement, Socioeconomic Secretary Ernesto Pernia also said he is optimistic that the implementation of the tax reform package can begin by January 2018. – Rappler.com