Separate pay scales for the employees of Bangladesh Bank and the four state-owned commercial banks (SOCBs) are expected to be implemented from the beginning of the next fiscal year.
A high official of the Bank and Financial Institutions Division said, “We will examine the facilities which are supposed to be incorporated by the national pay commission under the eighth national pay scale for the government staffs.’’
“Banking division will re-adjust the salary structure of the separate pay scales before executing it in July in the next fiscal,” said an official.
Attending the recently held fifth meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on ministry of finance, “We have already recommended executing a separate pay scale for the central bank and four other state- owned banks,” Abdul Razzaque, chairman of the standing committee on finance ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
The separate pay scale for staffs of the state banks is needed for their competitiveness against the private commercial banks, despite announcement of the new national pay scale expected to be implemented also from July next fiscal year, he added.
Meanwhile, after a meeting with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President Wencai Zhang, Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday last had reaffirmed that the pay scale for the government staff would come into effect from July 1 next year.
Although the Pay and Services Commission is scheduled to submit its final report to the government by December 15, it is set to hand over the report on December 10 this year.
Upon receiving the report, a secretary-level committee will then review the proposed recommendations and place it in the cabinet meeting, he added.
Separate pay scale for BB and the four state-owned banks are yet to be executed because of legal complexities.
However, the central bank and the state-owned banks had already secured the separate pay-scale clearance from the law and parliamentary affair ministry in the first week of March this year.
On 24 November, the government constituted the eighth pay and service commission to formulate a new pay structure for public servants. Mohammad Farashuddin, former Bangladesh Bank governor, led the 17-member commission. The committee comprised of three full-time members, 12 part-timers and a member secretary.
Bangladesh Bank and the four state-owned banks have a total of 61,000 staffs. Bangladesh Bank has 4,958 staffs while Sonali Bank 23,363, Janata Bank 15,146, Agrani Bank 13,558 and Rupali Bank 4,293.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signed the recommendations of the secretaries’ committee on separate pay scale on November 12 last year. Under the new 11-grade pay scale, which will replace the existing 20-grade pay structure, the basic salary for those in the lowest grade will be Tk6,000 and for the highest grade will be Tk55,000.
