The Eighth Pay and Service Commission recommended doubling the salary for civil servants on the average in its report submitted to the finance minister today.
Minimum basic wage Tk 8,200, maximum basic pay Tk 80,000
Government’s total expenditure may increase by up to 63% if implemented
Suggestion to lower budget for expense in payment of civil servants
Number of grades lowered to 16 from the existing 20
BCS cadres to get the highest of raise
Proposal to lower forced retirement ceiling to 20 years of service
Commission Chairman Mohammad Farashuddin, a former Bangladesh Bank governor, handed the report to Minister AMA Muhith at his office at 9:00am.
According to the recommendations, the minimum basic pay for civil servants will be now Tk 8,200 while the maximum pay would be Tk 80,000 – a 100% raise.
“We have proposed doubling the basic salary on the average for the 13 lakh civil servants employed in the country,” Farashuddin told reporters after submitting the report.
However, the employees in between the maximum and minimum salary structure have varying amount of raise.
The main objective of the pay hike of the civil servants was to provide incentive and curb on corruption among the 13 lakh civil servants employed in the country.
After receiving the report, Minister Muhith said the new pay scale will come into effect from July 1 next year. “I am pleased to receive such a report. It will be implemented.”
The government’s total expenditure, for salary of civil servants, to implement the new recommendations may increase up to 63 percent, Farashuddin said.
However, in the report, the budget allocation on the expenditure has been brought down to 14.5 percent from the existing 15 percent.
This will not affect the pay of the civil servants because the implementation of the new pay structure will come in phases, Farashuddin said.
This means, if this pay scale is implemented, the government will clear the increased basic pay of all employees of July, but not all will get their other allowances.
Number of grades in the civil service has been lowered to 16 from the previous 20.
The report proposed the basic pay (special category) for senior secretaries at Tk 88,000 from existing 42,000 and Tk 1 lakh for cabinet secretary and the principal secretary from Tk 45,000.
The report proposed highest amount of raise for BCS cadres, raising their basic entry level salary at Tk 25,000 from the existing basic of Tk 11,000.
The commission suggested many attractive incentives in the form of non-cash benefits like accommodation facility, mandatory insurance etc.
It also proposed setting up a bank for the government employees and suggested selling a state-owned land at Dainik Bangla to collect money for the bank.
The commission also recommended lowering the forced retirement ceiling to 20 years instead of the prevailing 25-year service span. This means, if implemented, the government can retire a civil servant after 20 years of service.
The 17-member Eighth Pay and Service Commission was formed in November last year.
In August 2008, the then military-backed caretaker government had formed the 13-member Seventh Pay Commission headed by former secretary M Mustafizur Rahman.
The Seventh Pay Commission took 14 months to submit its recommendations which the subsequent Awami League-led government implemented since July 2009.
– Star Online Report
