The eighth Pay Scale is most likely to be implemented for civil officers by October. This pay scale includes a new provision for 5% annual increments.
The new pay scale will incur an additional cost of Tk12, 212.29 crore, in comparison with the cost the government incurred during the last fiscal year. This is an increase of 59.5% in allocations for the payment of basic salaries.
A Finance Division official said dropping the time scales and selection grades provisions were causing the government trouble since a large number of government employees benefited from the two provisions and they were unhappy with the change.
Three-fifths of all government employees, roughly 2.1 million people, have benefited from the scrapped provisions.
“The Pay Commission’s recommendations to drop the provisions and replace them with annual increments has inspired stiff opposition from public employees who are causing delays in implementing the pay scale,” he said.
The new pay scale does away with time scales and selection grades, replacing these two provisions with annual cash increments instead.
A big chunk of this fiscal year’s budget allocation will go to paying government staff basic salaries.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Monday said, “The report on the pay scale might be placed before the next cabinet meeting.”
Muhith earlier said the government would implement the new pay scale on July 1, no matter when public servants finally receive their cheques.
Earlier, Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed said, “We have already prepared a write-up about the 5% increment. It explains everything about the new provision.”
The finance ministry sent a report on the proposed pay structure, including the disputes surrounding it, to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last week.
Sources in the Finance Division said the prime minister asked for committees to be formed to solve university teachers’ problems with the pay hike and to sort through problems with scrapping time scales and selection grades.
According to a Finance Division estimate, basic salary allocations would rise by 59.5% next fiscal year compared with this year.
The biggest percentage increase – 69.1% – will be to pay the basic salaries of public servants, the staff of autonomous bodies and Armed Forces personnel. Teachers of educational institutions under the Monthly Payment Order would see a 34.3% rise.
A secretary-level committee submitted its updated report to the finance minister on the government’s eighth pay revision on May 13.
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, although the secretary-level committee revised it to 20 grades.
Source: Ittefaq
