Why should the KESC chief be paid so much?
When I graduated in 1966, the starting salary for engineers in the KESC was Rs. 450 per month plus a technical allowance of Rs. 50 per month. I didn’t join the KESC because it was a government-owned company in those days and everyone knows that working for the government makes a person corrupt, inefficient and useless. My first salary was six hundred rupees per month (at that time my uncle in Bombay-also an engineer like me-was drawing Rs. 400 p.m. and the Pakistan rupee was slightly higher in value than the Indian rupee).
One wonders why salaries are so high nowadays. A couple of years ago the chief executive of Hub Power Company was being paid Rs. 1.8 million p.m. And now we hear that the salary of the new KESC chief (Tabish Gauhar) is 35% higher than what his predecessor was being paid. Mr. Gauhar will draw Rs. 1.3 million per month (U.S. $ 185,000 per year, compared to the U.S. president’s salary of U.S. $ 400,000). In addition, the KESC chief will get free accommodation (up to Rs. 760,000 per month) and other perks (including guards to protect him and his family, annual leave, air fare, medical expenses, etc).
Now, I know that some executives in the banking sector get even higher salaries than this. In fact, some people I know say that the KESC chief should be paid even more. The question arises: why? If the KESC had shown some improvement after privatization, it would have been understandable. But the company is making losses of Rs. fifteen billion per year and its management has not been able to reduce line losses due to rampant theft by power thieves numbering six hundred and fifty thousand. Right now the need of the hour is to cut down on expenses, and one way of doing it is to reduce the salaries and perks given to senior executives (particularly those who work in inefficient companies like the KESC).
It should be remembered that the basic minimum salary in the country is Rs. 6,000 (about seventy dollars) p.m., while sixty million Pakistanis try to survive on less than two dollars a day.
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November 11th, 2009 00:25 GMT
Can you give some examples of what the CEOs of other companies and private sector are getting? Generally the salaries plus benefits at comparative levels accross the industry cannot be too different otherwise people will leave less paying companies.
November 11th, 2009 00:43 GMT
Though salaries seem very high, we have to also consider the cost of living, real estate and food.
One friend in the engineering industry told me that his salary had risen by 12 times between 1998 and 2007.
The starting salaries for fresh graduates in many fields had gone up from Rs. 8,000-18,000 p.m. in to 2,00,000-3,50,000 p.m. during the same period.
Real estate prices are higher. A cup of coffee in a mall or multiplex costs Rs.50-100 and a movie ticket from Rs.120 (discounted weekday morning) to Rs.250…a bowl of noddles or a plate of kebabs in a very modest restaurant costs Rs.180…ofcourse these are India prices so I assume something similar in Pakistan.
November 11th, 2009 00:46 GMT
Correction… Read Rs. 8,000-18,000 p.m. in to 2,00,000-3,50,000 p.m.
As Rs. 80,000-1,00,000/ year in to 2,00,000-3,50,000 / year
November 11th, 2009 09:39 GMT
@ Hend: Depending upon the university, a fresh engineering graduate or MBA can get Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 30,000 p.m. (fresh MBAs from prestigious universities like LUMS or IBA command even greater salaries than this). But the job market isn’t as good now as it used to be a year ago. Many high-paid Karachi executives have been laid off or transferred from Karachi to Lahore or other places. Although it’s not so bad for a Lahore resident to live in Karachi or any other major city in Pakistan, anyone who’s lived in Karachi all his life would rather quit than work in any other city in Pakistan (unless, of course, he had no other choice).
November 11th, 2009 10:15 GMT
It is a big joke with Karachiates. People are forced to pay for poor or no service. Lack of accountability to new heights.
November 11th, 2009 16:58 GMT
tayab good point. in most of the big cities the services are declining but people are having to pay more and more. one major reason is that the population of cities keeps growing as more and more people move to cities but the geographical size and infrastructure remains the same. the population rise leads to higher prices and low living standard. the development should be spread more evenly in the country and for that government will have to invest in infrastructure in all places.
November 12th, 2009 00:48 GMT
@shakir definitely a valid point…………bt dis corporate mafia iz out of control……..read sumwhere dat while US taxpayers were bailing out while elephants like GM, CITIBANK etc………there ceo’s were still gathering yearly bonus!
November 15th, 2009 12:58 GMT
the equation is as under,
there are 1,000 millions in a billion KESCs annual loss is Rs. 15 billion that translates into a loss of Rs. 15,000 millions annually
i understand that no one expecting Rs. 50,000 p.m. (0.05 million) will be willing or capable enough to turn the above mentioned loss into profit by employing corporate wichcraft. then lets invest Rs. 1.5 million or even Rs. 3.0 million to let someone do this miracle.
btw i started my career as a Project Engineer in SNGPL with a monthly pay of Rs. 18k in 2004. a fresh engineer gets a start of Rs. 27k in SNGPL nowadays.