Civil servants may have to wait till December to get salaries under new pay scale as incorporation of time scale and selection grade will require major structural changes to the proposals that is time-consuming, officials said.
“If time and selection grade is incorporated in the proposed pay scale, it will need huge structural changes and time. So implementation will be delayed by four more months,” a Finance Division official told Dhaka Tribune yesterday asking not be named.
Last month, Finance Minster AMA Muhith admitted the execution of the new pay scale recommendations would be delayed.
But he said: “I hope that the delays will not impact public servants’ work. Money for the new pay scale will be made available from July 1, no matter whether the implementation is delayed.”
In parliament yesterday, State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan said the proposals would be placed before cabinet for approval this month.
Meanwhile, Finance Division has already estimated how much the government will have to pay in total to the civil servants if the pay scale is implemented from January next year, which indicates that the payment could be delayed till the end of this year.
“We have estimated a total figure if the pay commission’s proposals are implemented from January next year,” said a Finance Division official.
He said the delay was good for the government as it had not to pay increased festival bonus under the new pay scale and got a relief from big burden on current budget.
According to the Finance Division estimates, if pay scale is implemented from January, the government will have to pay Tk13,849.96 crore as dues to the civil servants.
After incorporation of time scale and selection grade, a three-fifths of all government employees, roughly 2.1m tax-paying eligible voters, will continue to benefit from the two provisions. Under these provisions the civil servants are getting salary hike without any promotion.
Former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder told Dhaka Tribune that as the secretary-level review committee submitted its recommendations on the eighth National Pay and Services Committee report much before, the government should implement new pay scale as early as possible.
He said the delay of the implementation of new pay scale could lead to agitation among civil servants if such delays continued.
The secretary-level committee submitted its updated report to the finance minister on the government’s eighth pay revision on May 13.
Finance Division officials said if a new provision of 5% annual compound increment was dropped from the pay recommendations and time scale and selection grade was incorporated in that place, all the officials would not benefitted financially from the new pay scale.
They also said salary difference between eighth and ninth grades in the proposed pay scale would be reduced.
Now, the civil servants are getting 4% annual increment under seventh pay scale.
The Pay Commission, headed by former Bangladesh Bank governor Mohammed Farashuddin, had made its recommendations on December 21 last year.
It had proposed 16 grades, although the secretary-level committee revised it to 20 grades.