The finance division’s proposal to announce 20% dearness allowance for 1.1m public servants will be placed before the cabinet committee meeting today for approval aiming to what officials said to ease the impact of price hike on government employees.
“The proposal was sent to the cabinet meeting last week but not tabled because of time constraints,” said a senior finance division official.
The official said it was likely to take effect from November 1 following cabinet approval.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the inflation stood at 7.39% in August and 7.78%in July.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a meeting of the Professional’s Coordination Council at the Bangabandhu Conference Centre: “We have decided to give 20% dearness allowance, with 1,500 and Tk6,000 as minimum and maximum raise. Besides, we will also announce a pay commission.”
But there was no connection between the announcement for dearness allowance and the permanent pay commission, she said.
“This is entirely a one-time thing, and will be provided separately. I also want to create a permanent pay commission so that salaries can be revised regularly.”
The finance division is now working on a summary of the planned permanent pay commission which will go to the finance minister for his consent and then to the cabinet committee for approval, official sources said.
Finance division estimates that the increased dearness allowance will cost the government Tk21bn.
President of Bangladesh Secretary Karmachari Oikyo Parishad(a platform of secretariat employees) Abdul Kudus Khan told the Dhaka Tribune the dearness allowance will not be effective retrospectively.
“Finance secretary Fazle Kabir has assured us that the dearness allowance proposal will be placed at the cabinet today for approval,” he said.
He also said the government will announce the permanent pay commission within short time after finding a chairman for the commission.
The government has not kept any block allocations in the current fiscal’s budget to meet the new pay scale which will require the government to spend Tk2.5bn every month in addition to regular salary.
The government announced the seventh national pay scale in 2009 fixing the highest salary at Tk40,000 and lowest at Tk4,100. The last pay scale came up with a 52% increase, on an average, in the basic salary of public servants. This enhanced pay scale will cost the government an additional amount of Tk62.22bn annually.
