For the first time, government employees will receive a dearness allowance based on their grade, with those in lower grades receiving a higher rate.
A new proposal by the Ministry of Finance outlines that employees in grades one to three will receive 10% of their basic salary, while those in grades four to ten will get 20%, and employees in grades eleven to twenty will receive 25%.
The government aims to implement this allowance by February, with salary increases ranging from Tk4,000 to Tk7,800.
The Ministry of Finance has finalized a draft proposal related to this, which will be sent for approval to the Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus.
According to the proposal, employees in grades one to three will receive 10% of their basic salary as the dearness allowance.
Employees in grades four to ten will receive 20%, and employees in grades eleven to twenty will receive 25% of their basic salary as the allowance.
The minimum salary increase will be Tk4,000, and the maximum increase will be Tk7,800.
No employee will receive less than Tk4,000 in dearness allowance.
However, after the dearness allowance is implemented, the previous government’s 5% dearness incentive will no longer apply.
Officials from the Ministry of Finance shared this information with the media. They also mentioned that pension-receiving officers and employees will also receive the dearness allowance.
If everything proceeds smoothly, the proposal is to give the dearness allowance along with the February salary.
Officials from the Ministry of Finance also said that it is very difficult to keep expenses in the revenue sector low.
Therefore, everything will fall under the development budget, which will be reduced, and the increased salary allowances will be given from that budget.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration, Mokhlesur Rahman, confirmed that the dearness allowance will be provided this fiscal year.
He said that the dearness allowance will be announced for employees by June 30. However, he did not specify the percentage of the dearness allowance.
The last pay scale for government employees was given in 2015, and since then, their salary has not increased.
Due to the rising daily expenses of employees, the government has decided to provide a dearness allowance at a fixed rate along with the basic salary.
According to the Ministry of Public Administration, there are approximately 1.4 million employees working in various ministries, departments, directorates, offices, corporations, and autonomous institutions of the government.
For the 2024-25 fiscal year, the budget allocation for their salary and allowances is Tk81,580 crore.
There is no allocation for the dearness allowance in the budget, but this rate will be finalized based on the recommendations of the committee and will be coordinated with other sectors of the operating budget.
The last time the government provided a 20% dearness allowance was in 2013. At that time, the highest salary increase was 6,000, and the lowest was 1,300.
Three years later, when the announcement was made to increase the salary by 100%, the actual salary increase was 80%.
The time scale and selection grade from the last pay scale were abolished. Between 1977 and 2015, a total of eight pay scales were given.
The provision of dearness allowances in all government sectors will also impact private sector employees and the general public. This is because while the government increases the allowances for its employees, it does not take responsibility for increasing the salaries of private sector employees.
As a result, 2.1 million military and civilian employees will experience salary increases, but the general public will bear the brunt.
