The government is going to draw money from its deposit in the country’s largest state-owned Sonali Bank instead of taking loan from banking system to pay salaries of civil servants under 8th pay scale, official sources said.
According to a Finance Division official, pay fixation is yet to be done and so it is not possible right now to figure out the actual amount of money necessary to meet up the new pay scale.
This is why the government is not going for immediate loan from the banking system, said the source.
Primarily, the money will be taken from Sonali bank while the rest of the amount from Bangladesh Bank instead of banking system because of low revenue collection from the National Board of Revenue, the official also said.
A Bangladesh Bank official said it will be just an electronic transfer of new pay scale salaries of civil servants from Sonali Bank to other banks having the government accounts.
According to an earlier estimate of the central bank, Tk3,976cr will be needed for payment of total salaries for December and increased amount for July and August while Tk5,301cr for January 2016 and September, October and November for 2015.
The government average monthly earning is Tk10,983cr against expenditure of Tk10,878cr while its surplus stood at Tk10,000cr in October.
The National Pay and services Commission report revealed that the government will need additional Tk15,904.24cr for implementation of new pay scale.
Earlier, BB planned to take loan of Tk3,500cr from banking system against short- and long-term government bonds.
The gazette for the new pay scale was published on December 15 on the website of the Finance Division.
On September 6, the 8th pay scale for public servants got the cabinet consent with a proposal for replacing time scale and selection grade with annual increment of 3.75% to 5%.
The new pay scale for 2.1 million civil servants will be made effective retrospectively from July 1, 2015.