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The following is issued on behalf of the Executive Council Secretariat :
Non-official members of the Executive Council (ExCo) have decided that their monthly honorarium would not be raised, even though the movements of the Consumer Price Index (C) (CPI(C)) suggest that the honorarium should be increased by 1.8%.
"Under the established system, the monthly honorarium of non-official ExCo members is annually adjusted in October by reference to the movements of CPI(C). The average CPI(C) for the past year has increased by 1.8%, but non-official ExCo members have decided that their monthly honorarium would remain unchanged, following their voluntary reduction of the honorarium as from July 1," a spokesman for the ExCo secretariat said.
Non-official ExCo members took a voluntary cut of their monthly honorarium by 5.38% with effect from July 1, in accordance with the Chief Executive's announcement on June 16 that he and politically appointed officials would take a voluntary pay cut of 5.38% with effect from July 1. After the cut, the monthly honorarium of the Convenor was $98,910 and that of other non-official ExCo members was $61,770.
Ends/Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:30
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