Despite inflation, there is no plan to provide a new pay scale (salary structure) for government officials and employees in the economic crisis. However, the government has taken the initiative to provide them with dearness allowance. As part of this, a review committee has been formed.
The Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance formed the committee on Thursday and issued an office order. The seven-member committee, chaired by the Principal Secretary to the Chief Advisor, includes the Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration, the Auditor General and Controller, the Finance Secretary, the Secretary of the Office of the Chief Advisor, the Secretary of the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Department and the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, and the Additional Secretary of the Regulations Division of the Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance.
The committee was formed to review and make recommendations on the provision of dearness allowance to officials and employees employed in government work under the National Pay Scale, 2015. The terms of reference of the committee state that the committee will review the applicability and availability of dearness allowance and submit necessary recommendations. If necessary, one or more officers can be assimilated.
Usually, a new pay scale is to be announced every five years. The last time the eighth pay scale came into effect was in July 2015. At that time, the Pay Commission did not recommend a new scale, but proposed an annual increase (increment) taking inflation into account. Until July 2023, government officials and employees received an increment of 5 percent every year. Meanwhile, government employees were making several demands, including the announcement of a new pay scale to increase their salaries in line with inflation.
In such a situation, the Finance Ministry had planned to provide a 20 percent dearness allowance in the budget for the fiscal year 2023-24. Although it was later not implemented, an additional 5 percent incentive was given on the basic salary. In this, the salary of employees from grade 10 to grade 20 increased from 412 to 800 taka. But taking inflation into account, the minimum was increased to 1,000 taka and the minimum to 500 taka for pensioners.
Finance Ministry officials said that inflation has been more than 9 percent in the country for almost two and a half years. In this context, special incentives were announced in July 2023, which is ongoing in this fiscal year as well. However, since there has been no new pay scale for almost 9 years, officials and employees are struggling to live with increased inflation. Announcing a new salary structure in the current economic situation would not be logical. In this situation, the committee formed will determine the amount of dearness allowance as well as finalize whether the additional 5 percent increment will be in force.
According to the recently published Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) update report, food inflation across the country was 13.80 percent in November. Non-food inflation across the country was 9.39 percent in November.
Usually, dearness allowance is given in special circumstances. Therefore, this allowance is not added to the basic salary. As a result, no other allowances, including their house rent, are manipulated.
According to the Ministry of Public Administration, there are about 1.45 million employees working in various ministries, divisions, directorates, offices, corporations and autonomous institutions of the government. In the current 2024-25 fiscal year budget, an allocation of Tk 81,580 crore has been made for their salaries and allowances. There is no allocation for dearness allowance in the budget. However, this rate will be finalized based on the recommendations of the committee and coordinated with other sectors of the operating budget.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Secretariat Officers-Employees Sanyukta Parishad has thanked the government for planning to provide dearness allowance. President of the council Md. Badiul Kabir and Acting Secretary General Nizam Uddin Ahmed said, we are grateful to the government.
