The Thai government has adjusted increasing the cost of living allowance for state officials and employees in an attempt to narrow the salary gap between the public and private sectors and improve people’s living cost.

The increases, to take effect retroactively from October 1, will cost about 1.5 billion THB annually from the state budget to cover 300,000 civil servants with the aim of ensuring that they should have a monthly income of 10,000 THB at least.

For those already earning more than 10,000 THB a month, their allowances will be also raised, however, the monthly income total including salary and cost living allowance must not be exceed 13,285 THB for each.

The salary hike for civil servants is one of the priorities of the National Council for Peace and Order to relieve the financial difficulties for low-paid officials in particular and discourage them from taking bribes, Bangkok Post newspaper said, adding that the government also set aside 16.8 billion THB for civil servants salary rising.

It is expected that around 1.98 million civil servants will enjoy the salary increase with an average rate of 4 percent from April 2015.-VNA