The proposal to reduce the number of public servants’ pay grades from 20 to 16 – will not be implemented as the process of amending the service rule would be too long, a member of the government review committee has told the Dhaka Tribune.
The secretary-level committee, tasked with reviewing the National Pay and Service Commission recommendations, has also reportedly decided to disburse the recommended basic salaries and a 5% yearly increment from the first day of the 2015-16 fiscal year.
The committee member, on condition of anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the decision on this regard has already been conveyed to the prime minister and the finance minister during a recent meeting.
“Reducing the number of pay grades would create discrimination within the grades as well as creating complexities of amending service rules,” the member said.
Also according to a latest decision, the highest salary for government employees will be fixed at Tk90,000 instead of the proposed Tk100,000, while the lowest salary will be Tk8,500 instead of the proposed Tk8,200.
Sources in the secretary-level committee, meanwhile, said it was yet to be decided whether the time scale and selection grade provisions would be dropped in accordance with the recommendations; however, a decision has already been made to not increase the salaries of a fixed post.
Last week, Senior Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed – who is a member of the committee – told the Dhaka Tribune: “The government will definitely implement execution of national pay commission recommendations from July this year”
The government has enough funds to implement the pay scale recommendations, he also claimed.
On the other hand, a Finance Division official told the Dhaka Tribune that Tk13,000 crore had been allocated for implementing the pay commission’s recommendations for the next fiscal year.
The source added that the six-member secretary-level committee, led by Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, would submit its review report by the end of this month.
In addition to reviewing the pay hike proposals for government employees, the committee is also looking after the recommended pay hikes for the armed forces.
Earlier, the pay commission’s Chairman Mohammad Farashuddin had claimed that financing the additional amount would not be a problem if only 1% revenue growth could be ensured.
Currently, there are over 832,000 government employees and around 500,000 pensioners in the country.