Civil servants will probably not get their new pay hike cheques before Eid-ul-Azha as the Finance Division tries to work through the complexities of the National Pay and Services Commission’s recommendations, including issues of sectoral and grade gaps.
Finance Minster AMA Muhith admitted yesterday to the Dhaka Tribune that the execution of the new pay scale recommendations would be delayed, saying: “I hope that the delays will not impact public servants’ work. Money for the new pay scale will be made available from July 1, 2015, no matter whether the implementation is delayed.”
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the government would execute the new pay scale for public servants soon, UNB reported yesterday.
“Another pay scale was supposed to be executed from this month. By the grace of Allah, it is almost ready and we will do it,” she said at a views-exchange meeting with senior officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Hasina said her government had increased public servants’ salaries in 2009. “The salary and allowance hike for the government staff in that pay scale was not nominal…it was a handsome amount.”
Muhith said: “The implementation of the 2009 pay scale was delayed by a year. It is not abnormal for there to be delays in the execution of new pay scales.
“It will not be possible for the Finance Division to place the commission’s recommendations before cabinet this month due to the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays.”
Before the recommendations are placed in the cabinet, the prime minister must formally consent to the proposed measures. “We expect that the proposed pay scale will be approved by the cabinet within the next three months,” Muhith said.
According to the Finance Division’s implementation and monitoring wing, the Bangladesh Armed Forces are not likely to get a separate pay scale as recommended by the committee.
The Finance Division is now looking into the grades of professors and university vice-chancellors because they claim that their promotions would be stalled because the pay commission has dropped the selection provision. They say their salaries and status would be lowered in comparison with government secretaries.
Sources said the finance minister is considering alternatives to the time scale and selection grade system since the pay scale commission has done away with it.
Muhith has decided to give cash to public servants instead of time scale but it is unclear how the government will upgrade officers’ posts without using selection grade criteria.
Under the existing time scale and selection grade system, government servants get increments and upgrades to their posts without promotion.
On May 13, the secretarial committee reviewing the pay hike proposals for public servants did not include time scale and selection grade provisions in its recommendations.
A member of the committee, formed in February to review the pay commission recommendations, told the Dhaka Tribune that the highest salary for public servants would be Tk90,000 instead of the proposed Tk1 lakh, while the lowest salary would be Tk8,250 instead of the proposed Tk8,200.
The committee reportedly gave its consent to the recommended basic salaries and an annual 5% increment, effective from the first day of the next financial year.
On December 21 last year, the National Pay and Service Commission recommended doubling the public servants’ salaries, the allotment of plots for group housing and introducing bank loans with single-digit interest rates.
The government has allocated Tk26,643 crore more in the next fiscal year to implement the first phase of the new pay scale.
In the last fiscal year, the government had allocated Tk11,284 crore to pay salaries to its employees and an additional Tk12,058 crore for their allowances.
