Ministers, Secys: Mobile phone allowance for them raised five times

The cabinet yesterday approved a draft of the Government Telephone, Cellular and Internet Policy-2018 raising the mobile phone allowance for ministers and secretaries to Tk 75,000 from Tk 15,000.

The draft brought a number of changes to the existing policy framed in 2004.

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam briefed reporters at the secretariat after a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office with Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

According to the draft policy, those who are entitled to get mobile phones, including ministers, state ministers, deputy ministers, all secretaries and acting secretaries will get Tk 75,000 instead of Tk 15,000 to buy a mobile phone set, he said.

He added that the allocation has been increased in line with the present market prices of android mobile phones.

As per the existing policy, there is no ceiling for mobile phone expenditures by ministers, state ministers, deputy ministers and secretaries, he said.

He said joint secretaries would get Tk 1,500 a month as mobile phone expenses instead of the current Tk 600. But they would not get any allocation for purchasing mobile phone sets.

The cabinet also gave directives to avail the telephone and mobile phone facilities for Supreme Court judges in the policy.

Besides this, the cabinet approved a draft of Housing and Building Research Institute Bill 2018 that brought minor changes to the existing law.

Shafiul Alam said the move to enact the new law came as the Housing and Building Research Institute was established with an ordinance promulgated during the military regime in 1977.

"There's no big change here except the clauses related to the committees."

The housing and public works minister will be the chairman of the governing council of the institute, while its director general will be the head of the executive committee, cabinet secretary said.