South Sudan's National Parliament Building - Courtesy

SPLM-IO lawmakers have just walked out of the extraordinary session of Parliament after the SPLM-IG and allies insisted on a 400% salary increment instead of the 600% proposed by SPLM-IO.

The August House started an extraordinary sitting early on Friday to try to approve the 2023-2024 Fiscal Year Budget, which has been mired with disagreement on the amount of adjustment on the salaries.

Eye Radio journalist covering the sitting said earlier the Minister of Finance provided justification for the executive’s decision to stick to a 400% salary increase.

Dr. Bak Barnaba appealed to the lawmakers to accept his appeal of approving the budget with 400%, not 600% as demanded by the lawmakers.

A 400 percent increment means a civil servant earning 1,800 pounds will now earn 7,200 pounds, while a 600 percent increment for the above amount is 10,200 pounds.

According to the minister, the primary reason for maintaining the percentage is due to the question of where to afford financial resources to fund the salary.

Meanwhile, the head of the Economic Committee has encouraged lawmakers to accept the minister’s appeal and ratify the request.

But the members of SPLM-IO rejected the appeal and have now boycotted the sittings.

Currently, only SPLM-IG, SSOA and OPP are debating the budget.

SPLM-IO legislators wanted over 600 percent increment while the SPLM-IG see a 400 percent increment as the only realistic decision.

The latter also suggests a supplementary budget to top up the salary if the need arises.

Editors’ Note:

Corrections: An earlier version of this story titled: “SPLM-IO, SSOA MPs boycott budget reading over salary impasse” has been corrected after we realized that it was only one MP from SSOA who appeared alongside SPLM-IO MPs as having boycotted the reading. Therefore, we corrected the story after SSOA Chief Whip Isaiah Akim Benjamin released a statement refuting that his caucus has walked out with the SPLM-IO lawmakers. We regret the error.