The Law Ministry has given its vetting to the official order of the 8th Pay Scale for public servants, almost clearing way for the new pay structure to be implemented.
Sources said the gazette notification in this regard might be published next week and the government employees will start receiving new pay cheques from January.
Following a final review by the finance minister, the order will be sent to the president.
Finally, after getting the president’s approval, the Implementation Wing of the Finance Division will send five books of the order to the Bangladesh Government (BG) Press for the preparation of a gazette notification.
Initially, the public servants will be able to draw the hiked part of their basic pay and they will start receiving the hiked allowances six months later.
For example, employees belonging to the ninth grade of the existing 7th pay scale had so far been drawing a Tk11,000 basic salary plus allowances. From January, their basic pay will rise to Tk22,000, but their allowances will remain the same until June.
A Finance Division official said since the pay scale will be made effective retrospectively, the public servants will be able to claim their arrears from the day after the gazette notification is published.
However, if that happens, the government will need more than Tk6,500 crore, the official said, adding that this will be in addition to the Tk26,927 crore already allocated for implementing the 8th Pay Scale.
On Monday, while the pay scale order was already under the Law Ministry’s consideration, Finance Minister AMA Muhith proposed to introduce regular pay up-gradation for block post employees, who are not entitled to promotions.
Although the prime minister gave her consent to that, this proposal will not be implemented right away.
These employees, who have so far been benefitting from the selection grade and time scale provisions that the new pay scale has dropped, will have to wait a few more months.
After the cabinet meeting, the finance minister gave a hint that a separate pay scale might be formulated for the public university teachers, who have been alleging disparity between their and government employees’ salaries in the upcoming pay structure.
