New pay-scale to get cabinet nod next week
The new pay structure for government staff will be placed in the next cabinet meeting, scheduled to be held on Monday, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said.
Muhith's comments came after a meeting with the English-medium school association at his secretariat office yesterday.
The proposal is almost ready as recommended by the secretary-level review committee and the Pay and Services Commission, according to a finance ministry official.
There were some disputes among the government staff about the Pay Commission and Review committee recommendations.
Following the context, the finance ministry sent a report on the proposed pay structure, including the disputes surrounding it, to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina sent it back to the ministry with some instructions and it will be sent to the cabinet in the next couple of days, the official said.
After the cabinet approval, it is likely to take another 30 to 45 days to issue the notice on the new pay scale, according to the officials.
This means although the new pay structure has been in place since July 1, the public servants may start drawing the increased salaries from October with arrears of the previous three months.
The pay commission, headed by former Bangladesh Bank Governor Mohammed Farashuddin, submitted its report to Muhith on December 21 last year.
After that, the government formed a secretary-level review committee headed by Cabinet Secretary Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. After reviewing the report, the committee tendered its recommendations to the finance minister on May 13. An additional amount of around Tk 14,000 crore will be required to pay only the increased basic salaries of the government employees, according to the finance ministry's estimate.
IMF LOAN
The finance minister also said the government has already sent a letter to the International Monetary Fund seeking extension of the tenure of its Extended Credit Facility loan programme by three months.
The programme is scheduled to expire on July 31 and the government sought extension until October as it could not meet the conditions for the last two instalments, which amounts $280 million.
The multilateral lender deferred the sixth of the seven-part instalments for the $1 billion loan in November last year after the government failed to meet three of its pertinent conditions.
A thorough audit of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation's balance sheet by an international firm is one of the conditions. The cabinet yesterday approved the draft of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation Act 2015.
There is nothing new in the amendment, as the existing provisions allow the government to get the balance sheet of BPC audited by both foreign and local auditors, Muhith said.
The government is yet to be informed by the Washington DC-based multilateral lender if the tenure of the loan programme has been extended or not.
VAT ON ENGLISH-MEDIUM SCHOOLS
A 7.5 percent value-added tax has been imposed on the tuition fees of English-medium schools and 9 percent on house rent in the current fiscal year's budget.
The leaders of the English-medium schools association urged the finance minister to withdraw the VAT. When the finance minister was asked about this, he refrained from making any comment to the reporters.
Muhith, however, said: “I am impressed that there are so many English-medium schools in Bangladesh. Hundreds of schools in Dhaka alone and near about 10,000 students study in these schools. That means the country has seen much progress.”