PUTRAJAYA, April 4 — Civil servants will get higher salaries effective from July 1, Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced today.

The prime minister also told government servants in an address here that non-Muslim staff would be allowed to take seven days of unrecorded leave for religious events yearly while there would be a special haj quota for retired Muslim staff.

“In the 2018 Budget, the government approved unrecorded leave of seven days for umrah, for Muslim civil servants.

“Therefore, the government has agreed to extend unrecorded leave for non-Muslim staff, to carry out their respective religious activities, subject to a maximum of seven days, throughout their period of service. It takes effect beginning January 2018.

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“At the same time, the government would also continue to protect the welfare of retirees.

“To make sure the government retirees are able to perform their haj beginning 2018 and beyond, I have therefore agreed to fix a quota, which would be announced later, after the government obtains the number of quotas allocated for Malaysia, by the Saudi Arabia government,” he said.

At the end of his speech, Najib announced the salary hike for all civil servants.

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He said the increment would be equivalent to one annual salary raise (1KGT).

“Here it means, the government has agreed to give salary increment equivalent to the amount of 1KGT, to all 1.6 million civil servants, with an additional financial implication of RM1.46 billion, to take effect on July 1, 2018.

“This means that civil servants are getting one additional KGT, in addition to the annual salary review for 2018,” he added.

Najib was speaking at the 16th Majlis Amanat Perdana Perkhidmatan Awam which was attended by civil servants and senior government officers from all over the country.

The event was held ahead of the impending 14th General Election, which must be held by August.