Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday signed the recommendations of the secretaries’ committee on the separate pay scale for Bangladesh Bank and four state-owned commercial banks, finance ministry officials said.
After the prime minister’s approval, the Finance Division and board of directors of Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks will now have to execute separate pay scales for Bangladesh Bank and four state lenders within two days, they said.
“We will receive the recommendations for separate pay scale of Bangladesh Bank and four state-owned banks from the Prime Minister’s Office tomorrow (Tuesday) and the Banking Division will send those recommendations to the Finance Division and board of directors of the banks,” Secretary of Bank and Financial Institutions Division Dr Aslam Alam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
In this regard, the Finance Division and Banking Division issued two separate circulars on new pay scales—one for Bangladesh Bank and the other for four state lenders, he said. The new pay scales will be implemented from November, he added.
To avail the new pay scale, the central bank staff will have to be excluded from the national pay and service rules, the secretary pointed out.
Finance and banking officials said they were under pressure from new and outgoing staff members of the central bank and the four state-owned lenders to expedite the process of finalising separate pay scale, as the officials and employees of the banking sector regulator and government-owned commercial banks are paid much less than those in private and foreign banks.
But old staff members do not want the new pay scale to be executed, they said.
Officers and employees will be entitled to all other facilities including bonus, lunch allowance and provident funds as per the new scales.
Discriminations between salaries and old provident fund will be solved at the board meetings of the respective institutions.
Aslam Alam said the staffs of the central bank and four state banks would have to pay income taxes from their own incomes under the proposed separate pay scale as currently being practiced by the prime minister, ministers and government officials.
The secretary committee recommended a Tk2,000 hike and reconstitution of 11 pay grades instead of existing 19.
According to the new scale, basic salary of a central bank executive director will be Tk 35,750 and take-home pay will stand at Tk 93,750, while the an employee of the lowest grade will receive a gross pay of Tk12,500 .
For four state owned banks, the highest initial salary will be Tk 55,000 for a general manager and Tk 6,000 for a lowest grade staff member.
At present, the four government commercial banks have roughly 90,000 officers and employees, while the central bank employs about 6,000.