Salary freeze, tax surge hit professors

University faculty salaries frozen since 2021, with 81% higher tax burden

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan may soon face a serious human resource crisis in the public universities as the nation's highly qualified researchers and faculty members are on the verge of attrition due to a freeze in their salaries since 2021, and 81% increase in their tax burden.

These highly qualified researchers and professors, hired under the Tenure Track System (TTS), received the last raise in salaries in 2021 and since then they have faced at least three major surges in inflation, including the record inflation rate of 38%.

The last recruitment under the TTS was made in 2020. Since then, these specialized professionals have been experiencing attrition, with no increase in their salaries, according to details submitted to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning, and the Senate Standing Committee on Finance.

Minister of State for Finance Bilal Kayani on Tuesday also held a meeting with the representatives but no final solution was agreed, except a temporary relief promised by the finance ministry, according to the participants of the meeting.

The finance ministry conveyed that it would support a one-time increase in the salaries but the increase would be given by excluding certain allowances that minimize the real impact for the educationists.

The TTS, a performance-based, contract-based faculty employment system, had been introduced in 2002 to attract high-quality PhD researchers to public universities with a commitment to giving them double salaries compared to professors hired against regular basic pay scale.

However, instead of getting any advantage, their salaries have been frozen since 2021, showed these details.

These highly skilled people have been marginalized despite their exceptionally good performance that is earning the country foreign grants against education projects and improvement in the rankings of the universities due to their research publications.

In 2021, the minimum salaries were Rs175,500 for an assistant professor, Rs263,250 for an associate professor, and Rs394,875 for a professor. These salaries have remained unchanged since then, while the income tax burden has surged by 81% over the past five years, alongside a sharp rise in prices.

Had regular increases been applied over the past five years, an assistant professor would now be earning Rs328,000 a month, an associate professor Rs492,000, and a professor Rs738,000, according to a presentation given to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance last month.

Although the specialized category professors did not get annual raises, the increment that they received was hardly 5% per annum.

According to a briefing given to the finance ministry and the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, prices rose by 87% and the tax burden jumped by 81% for the TTS category but they got nil increase in salaries.

The researchers and faculty members were not an exception like other salaried persons in Pakistan who are forced to cough up more taxes every year. But the worst thing for the TTS-based employees was that they paid more taxes without getting higher salaries due to increase in tax rates and changes in tax slabs.

Compared to this, the faculty hired against the government's pay scales received a 71% increase in salaries, which was barely enough to offset the impact of the inflation but was much better than the TTS faculty.

Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal led committee had also tried to resolve their issues but his recommendations have not been honoured by the finance ministry.

The standing committee had been informed that there were about 4,000 faculty members, who did not receive any salary increase for the past five years, causing concern among stakeholders.

President Association of Pakistan Tenure Track Teachers (APTTA), Dr Asif Ali said that the body was in discussions with the Finance Division since November last year to get revision in their salaries.

He further said that a special task force constituted in 2023, headed by the planning minister, had also formulated recommendations aligned with the association's position.

Iqbal Task Force recommended that the TTS salary structure be benchmarked against the Basic Pay Scale (BPS) framework as applied in the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), based on the applicable BPS structure for FY 2025-26, with a premium of 35% over the gross BPS-based salary to be allowed as TTS allowance to ensure competitive compensation.

But these recommendations were never implemented.

An additional secretary finance took a position in the parliamentary committee stating that while the matter was not a legally binding requirement, the government was supportive of the proposed adjustments and the case was under process. He informed that efforts were being made to expedite the matter, though no definitive timeline had been finalized.