Under the upcoming new pay scale, a public servant will graduate to the next pay grade after 10 years of joining and the same thing will happen after another six years, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said.
This, the minister said, will ensure equal opportunity for all public servants and eliminate the necessity of time scale and selection grade provisions.
“Civil servants will automatically move to the next pay grade on the 11th year of their job and again on the 17th year,” Muhith told reporters yesterday after the first meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Salary Discrimination.
The meeting, chaired by Muhith, was also attended by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid and secretaries of the ministries concerned.
Public university and government school teachers’ demand for a separate pay scale was also on the agenda of the meeting.
“They are carrying the false idea that they are being deprived financially as the government is implementing the new pay scale without time scale and selection grade provisions,” Muhith said.
He also said that the time scale and selection grade provisions might stay for the university and school teachers because their promotions have been stuck in the middle of their job tenures.
Although the new pay scale will drop time scale and selection grade for civil servants and the new salary structure will come into effect retrospectively from start of the onoing fiscal year, several hundred bureaucrats from the BCS 24th batch has been enjoying th benefits of the two provisions since July 2.
Yesterday’s meeting of the cabinet committee also discussed this issue. According to meeting sources, these officials will continue to get the benefits and they will also get the benefits of the new pay scale when it is implemented.
Muhith yesterday also said: “We have taken administrative reform to ensure that every civil servants get equal opportunities.”
He also said the gazette notification for the new Eighth Pay Scale will not come tomorrow as was announced earlier before they need some time to absorb the decisions made at the cabinet committee meeting.
