Gov’t raises uniform allowance to P6,000

Government workers will receive a higher uniform allowance of P6,000 this year, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said Wednesday.

Under the 2018 national budget, P1.12 billion was allocated for the increase in the uniform and clothing allowances of government personnel, Diokno told reporters.

Previously, the allowance was only P5,000 a year.

“The uniform allowance has been set at P5,000 for years. We got the money from the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund,” Diokno said.

Last March 8, the Department of Budget and Management issued Budget Circular No. 2018-1, which laid down the rules and regulations on the grant of uniform/clothing allowance to civilian government employees.

Specifically, the new rules covered government personnel occupying regular, contractual, or casual positions; appointive or elective; and rendering services on full-time or part-time basis, the DBM said.

But besides uniformed personnel such as the military and the police, also excluded from the grant of uniform allowance were foreign service personnel of the Department of Foreign Affairs and other agencies who are assigned overseas; barangay officials and employees who are paid monthly honoraria; and those hired without employer-employee relationships and funded from non-personnel services appropriations/budgets, including consultants, contract workers as well as on-the-job trainees, according to the DBM.

The DBM said that the allowances are aimed at “defraying expenses for uniforms or distinctive clothing which are the required appropriate attire for employees in the regular performance of their work.”

“In general, such uniforms or clothing are intended to identify the employees with their mother-agencies and to convey emblem of authority; and serve as protective or working clothing, especially for maintenance, workshop, and farm personnel,” the DBM said.

According to the DBM, the allowance may be granted by agencies in the forms of cash, textile materials, or uniforms procured though a bidding process.

“As far as practicable, such uniform/clothing shall use Philippine tropical fibers pursuant to Republic Act No. 9242,” the DBM said.

“Shoes shall be on the personal accounts of officials/employees, unless provided for by law,” the DBM added.  /muf