The Cabinet has okayed spending Tk15,904.24 crore to implement the Eighth National Pay Scale – significantly less than was estimated by the National Pay and Services Commission, according to a Finance Division pay scale summary submitted to the Cabinet.
The Finance Division summary was signed by Senior Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed and approved at Monday’s cabinet meeting.
According to the summary, the highest salary tier will be Tk78,000 and the lowest will be Tk8,250, a ratio of 1:9.45.
The sum required to execute the new pay scale is 30.71 % less than what the pay commission had previously estimated. This difference in estimates may have occurred because the pay commission did not estimate how much would be required to pay Armed Forces salaries and allowances.
The pay commission initially estimated that Tk22,953.20 crore would be needed to see the new pay structure through, with a top salary of Tk80,000 and a bottom pay of Tk8,200.
A Finance Division official said: “We have allocated a huge amount of funds to implement the new pay scale in the current budget.
“Only salaries will increase in the first year of implementation, with allowances following in the second year.”
He claimed the new pay scale would not drive up inflation, estimated at 6.2% in the current budget.
Cabinet on Monday decided to allot Tk7,778.51 crore to pay the salaries of 850,000 direct government employees, Tk1,946.39 crore for teachers’ Monthly Payment Orders and Tk3,038.11 crore for the roughly half a million public sector pensions.
Allocation for allowances was not discussed at the cabinet meeting.
The government estimates that some Tk962.20 crore will be required to pay the salaries of the employees of autonomous government bodies and a further Tk1,529.81 crore would be required to pay defence salaries.
The Finance Division estimates that defence allowances will cost another Tk653.22 crore.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith earlier promised to implement the new pay scale from July 1. The government allocated an additional Tk26,630 crore in this year’s budget to implement the first phase of the new pay scale.
There is enough allocation in the current budget, including an additional Tk11,524 crore, to implement Monthly Pay Orders to select schools and colleges.
In last year’s revised budget, Tk14,374 crore had been earmarked to pay civil service and defence salaries.