New pay scale from July

The secretary committee submitted on Wednesday its recommendations on proposed national pay scale suggesting maximum basic salary at Tk 75,000 and minimum salary at Tk 8,250 for public servants.

The secretary committee on 8th National Pay and Services Commission recommended Tk 75,000 instead of earlier Tk 80,000 as the highest salary and Tk 8,250 the lowest salary for the government employees instead of earlier Tk 8,200.

It suggested maintaining the 20-grade pay scale for the public servants.

"The new pay scale will come into effect from July next. The highest salary has been recommended at Tk 75,000 while the lowest at Tk 8,250. It will be implemented in two phases," Finance Minister AMA Muhith told journalists after meetings of the cabinet committee on public purchase and economic affairs at the cabinet division.

The finance minister presided over the meetings.

The secretary-level committee submitted its recommendations to the finance minister on the day (Wednesday) by cabinet secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. There is no time scale and selection grade in the new pay scale.

The government formed the 8th National Pay and Services Commission headed by former Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Mohammed Farashuddin last year.

The secretary-level committee, headed by the cabinet secretary, was formed in January to review the recommendations of the 8th National Pay and Services Commission.

The government will need Tk 229.53 billion (Tk 22,953 crore) in addition to the budgetary allocations of Tk 360.17 billion (Tk 36,017 crore) in the current fiscal year for full implementation of the committee's recommendations, according to the reports.

The amount doesn't include the expenditure on salaries and allowances for defence staffs.

At present, the highest salary is Tk 45,000 and the lowest Tk 4,100.

"The ministry of finance will see the report. Then it will be sent to the cabinet. It will take two months (July to August). But the pay-scale will be implemented from July next," Mr Muhith said.

He said the new pay scale has 20 stages. "I thought it was between 10 and 16 stages. However, I think it should not be touched," he said.

He, however, hoped that the hike of salaries of the government officials and employees would not cast any negative impact on prices of essential commodities.  

The cabinet secretary said, in the past people knew the Pay Commission's report did not make any negative impact on the market.

"So there will be no negative impact this time. The recommendation is not out of the purview of the budget. So, there will be no adverse impact on the new pay-scale."

The Pay Commission submitted its report on December 31 last year and suggested doubling of the basic pay for civil servants with a minimum pay of Tk 8,200 and maximum Tk 80,000 and bringing some reforms in government service.

Meanwhile, the cabinet committee on purchase approved Wednesday nine projects involving a total cost of over Tk 10.66 billion that include 27.329 kilometres of road development work from Joydevpur to Mymensingh involving over Tk 2.64 billion (Tk 264.24 crore).

The cabinet committee also endorsed the construction of a satellite town with multistoried flat buildings at section-9, Mirpur in the city.

    talhabinhabib@yahoo.com