Take-home pay packet of public service-holders begins to fatten soon as officials at the Ministry of Finance are learnt to have started the process of implementing the just-recommended new pay scale.
People familiar with the development said the work began just after the members of the Pay Commission submitted the report to the Chief Adviser on Wednesday suggesting substantial salary hike with effect from the first of this month of January.
High-ups of the interim government are in favour of implementing the new pay scale "as soon as possible", according to finance ministry officials.
"The 'Implementation Wing' of the Finance Division is passing very busy time now," says a senior official of the division, preferring anonymity.
He says though there is a rule to obtain secretaries' committee approval before starting the process of implementation of the new pay scale, the initial desk-level works for pay fixation has already been started.
At the same time, work is underway to send the Pay Commission's report to the secretaries' committee, which is headed by the cabinet secretary, for its seal of approval.
According to officials concerned, after getting the secretaries' committee approval the process for pay-fixation will be finalised. Once completed, the proposal will be sent to the secretaries' committee again for endorsement before sending to the cabinet body for final approval.
After receiving approval from the highest decision-making body, the finance ministry will issue gazette notification of the pay scale.
The Pay Commission, headed by former finance secretary Zakir Ahmed Khan, Wednesday submitted report to Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus recommending lowest basic pay at Tk 20,000 and the highest at Tk 160,000 in an up to 142-percent pay raise for the public servants.
The commission recommended that the starting basic pay of a 20-grader will be Tk 20,000 from the existing Tk 8,250, marking over 142-percent hike.
On the other hand, a grade-1 employee will get Tk 160,000 (fixed) under the new pay scale, as recommended, in a rise from the existing pay of Tk 78,000 (fixed), a 105-percent hike.
The starting basic pay of a grade-2 employee is recommended to be Tk 132,000 from the present pay of Tk 66,000, marking a cent-percent pay increase.
Economists, however, were taken by dismay over such a big pay-raise recommendation the financing of which will be a tough job for the government with tiny revenue earnings.
Moreover, they fear, implementing the new pay structure would inject a large volume of money into the market, stoking inflation and putting pressure on people's living standards, and trigger wage-hike demands in the private sector, creating broader strains on the economy.
syful-islam@outlook.com
