Cabinet approves record draft budget of Dh34.9b

Abu Dhabi: The draft of the federal budget for 2008 was approved by the Cabinet during a meeting chaired yesterday by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The budget of Dh34.9 billion is the UAE's biggest and has the highest increase rate in the history of the federation, with a hike of Dh6.7 billion over the 2007 budget, which stood at Dh23.8 billion.

The draft budget includes a Dh1.4 billion allocation to implement the new federal government strategy announced by Shaikh Mohammad in April.

In line with the directives of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Shaikh Mohammad ordered a pay rise of 70 per cent in basic salaries for all federal government employees.

The pay rise includes military staff of the Interior Ministry and retired federal government workers, and takes effect from January 2008.

Shaikh Mohammad directed the Ministry of Fin-ance and Industry to speed up implementation of the order by disbursing the new salaries from January.

Allocations