【明報專訊】The results of the annual Pay Trend Survey (PTS) have been published. If the government acts in accordance with the results, civil servants at all levels will have a pay cut. Civil servants' associations, however, argue that salary freezes will be sufficient. The major reason they have cited is that the government did not give civil servants a pay rise last year according to the survey results. They maintain that their salaries should not be cut, but be maintained at the same levels this year (which, they argue, will merely "offset" the loss of last year's unmaterialised pay rise) in order to preserve the "relative stability" of the rates of remuneration of the civil service. The government has been in staggeringly huge deficits over the past two years, and its Operating Account is expected to run a deficit of tens of billions of dollars yearly in the next four years. When handling civil servants' salary payments, the authorities must take into account the need to cut expenditure.