Proposed eighth pay scale likely to be tabled before Cabinet next week

The proposed revised pay scale is likely to be placed for Cabinet approval next week, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said.

He, however, gave no further details while speaking to journalists after a meeting with the Bangladesh English Medium School Association in Dhaka on Monday.

A secretary-level committee had submitted its updated report to the minister on the government’s eighth pay revision on May 13.

The report, which revised the Bangladesh Pay and Services Commission’s recommendations, suggested a maximum basic pay of Tk 75,000 and a minimum of Tk 8,250.

The finance ministry is now ready to table the report before the Cabinet after having scrutinised all aspects.

Although its structure is not yet finalised, the government will introduce the eighth pay scale with retroactive effect from July 1.

The Pay Commission, headed by former Bangladesh Bank governor Mohammed Farashuddin, had made its recommendations on Dec 21 last year.

It had proposed 16 grades, but the secretary-level committee has revised it to 20.

Muhith estimates a 63.7 percent hike in government salary expenditure to match the new pay structure.

Once the pay hike is effected, the basic salary of Class-I officers, recruited after they clear the BCS examinations, will be over Tk 25,000, up from the current Tk 11,000.

In the last revision, done in 2009, the government raised the basic pay of public servants to minimum Tk 4,100 and maximum Tk 40,000.

From Jul 1, 2013, they had also been given 20 percent of their basic salary as dearness allowance.

But it will be withdrawn once the new scale is implemented.