The Eighth National Pay and Service Commission on Sunday submitted its report to the government proposing a new salary structure for the public servants. It recommended Tk 80,000 as the highest salary and Tk 8,200 as the lowest. The Commission proposed 100 per cent increase in wages for employees at the bottom of the scale while 77 per cent for officials at the top. Currently, the highest basic salary of a civil servant is Tk 40,000 and the lowest is Tk4,100.The report proposed Tk 88,000 basic salary (special category) for senior secretaries from existing Tk 42,000 and Tk 1 lakh for cabinet secretary and the principal secretary from Tk 45,000. It proposed highest amount of raise for BCS cadres, raising their basic entry level at Tk 25,000 from the existing basic of Tk 11,000.The 17-member commission, headed by former Bangladesh Bank governor Mohammad Farashuddin, submitted its recommendations to Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith at his office at 9:00am. Finance Division Secretary Mahbub Ahmed and other members of the Commission were present on the occasion. After receiving the report, Finance Minister Muhith said the new pay scale will come into effect from July 1 next year. “I am pleased to receive such a report. It will be implemented.”Asked whether there would be any inflationary impact once the new pay scale is implemented, Muhith replied, “Absolutely no.””We have proposed doubling the basic salary on the average for the 13 lakh civil servants employed in the country,” Farashuddin told reporters after submitting the report.Farashuddin, however, said that the employees in between the maximum and minimum salary structure will be varied in the proposed hike.When asked, he said, the government’s total expenditure, for salary of civil servants may increase 63 per cent once the proposed pay hike is implemented.”The main objective of the pay hike of the civil servants is to provide incentive and curb corruption,” he commented.The commission suggested many attractive incentives in the form of non-cash benefits like accommodation facility, mandatory insurance etc.Number of grades in the civil service has been lowered to 16 from the previous 20.The Commission also proposed setting up a bank naming “Sommriddhir Shopan” with Tk 400 crore capital for the government employees and suggested selling 20 katha government land at Dainik Bangla investing the money to the bank. It recommended lowering the forced retirement ceiling to 20 years instead of the prevailing 25-year service span. This means, if implemented, the government can retire a civil servant after 20 years of service.The Commission also recommended discontinuing with the Deputation System cancelling all the allowances about it.The 17-member Eighth National Pay and Service Commission was formed in November last year.In August 2008, the then military-backed caretaker government had formed the 13-member Seventh Pay Commission headed by former Secretary M Mustafizur Rahman.The Seventh Pay Commission took 14 months to submit its recommendations, which the subsequent Awami League-led government implemented since July 2009.
