Military personnel will receive pay raises this month of up to 30 percent of their basic salaries, Lt. Gen. Nasser Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Arfaj, Secretary General of Military Service Council, said Tuesday. The plan approved Monday by the Cabinet is so structured that lower-ranking personnel will receive higher percentage of increases, said Lt. Gen Al-Arfaj, who explained that as the rank goes up, the percentage of the raise goes down. Military staff in the rank of private, who currently receive SR2,160, will now get SR2,800. Increases, which will be provided this month, will given to all military staff including those serving in the Ministry of Defense, National Guard, Ministry of Interior, Presidency of the General Intelligence and Royal Guard, Lt. Gen. Al-Arfaj said. Those at the rank of lieutenant general will be paid the same as those in the Excellent Grade in the civil service pay scale and those at the rank of general will receive the same pay as ministers. Those matters were resolved earlier and the Council of Military Service issued the decision that was approved by the Council of Ministers, he said. The pay raises are not related to an anti-terrorism allowance given to military sectors involved in fighting terrorism and those embracing deviant thought, he added. As per the King's order, the pay raise proposal was discussed by the Council of Military Service, which reviewed the matter for eight months, and the minister of finance and chairman of the Council for Military Service were also directed to study this issue. The wage increase would be the second for the army since 2008 when Saudi Arabia offered state employees a 15 percent wage hike spread out over a three-year period. The rise in wages is likely to at least match the 5.1 percent inflation rate of 2009, said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi. “Wage increases in general have not matched the rises in inflation over the past few years and barely covered inflationary rates of the past five years,” he said. Lt. Gen. Al-Arfaj has expressed his gratitude to King Abdullah, in his capacity as the Supreme Commander of the military, for his generous gesture.
