Pay commission needs to start functioning

The government of Bangladesh formed a pay commission headed by Dr Mohammad Farashuddin, former governor of Bangladesh Bank, for government employees in November 2013. Recently, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, in a projection event on national annual income, in presence of Finance Minister informed that the country's per capita income has increased by US$ 414 over the last five years.
The per capita income five years ago was US$ 630 and increased to US$ 1,044 in 2012-13 fiscal year. One may recall that after the introduction of the last pay scale in 2009, five years have passed. Inflation has crossed 55 per cent in the last five years. That means 55 per cent real incomes of the employees have gone down. They are confronting financial hardship, nowadays. The national income has increased but the real income of the employees of government, semi-government and autonomous bodies have fallen. Now, the income of the employees needs to be increased considering the increase of per capita income as well as reduction of real income owing to inflation.
Off course, the government has allowed 20 per cent dearness allowance as an interim relief to the employees. However, no meeting of the pay commission was held as yet though four months have passed from the date of its formation. It takes time to make recommendations. If no meeting were held, how recommendations could be made? The pay commission should start functioning as soon as possible.
Md Ashraf Hossain
Ramna, Dhaka
mah120cb@yahoo.com