Dream of owning a home to come true for govt staff

The Pay and Service Commission is set to recommend a special package enabling all government servants to have flats, in an effort to fulfil the common man's wish of owning a home.

The 17-member commission is likely to submit the 250-page report to Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Thursday.

Currently, the government staff can take out a maximum of Tk 1.2 lakh in home loans. 

With the commission's new recommendation, they will be able to access low-cost loans according to their elevated salary scales. The amount will be bigger and payable over a long time.

The borrower could even use retirement benefits to pay back the loans if needed, according to a recommendation by the commission formed in November last year, led by Mohammad Farashuddin, former central bank governor.

Another proposal provides for a mandatory life insurance scheme, to which the government and the service holder will contribute equally.   The government now gives up to Tk 700 in medical allowance a month.

The report suggests replacing it with a health card, usable at different public hospitals, for each staff member.

The commission may recommend basic salary hikes of up to 100 percent compared to existing scales.

For entry-level cadre posts, the rise may be even higher -- around 150 percent -- to help attract meritorious job seekers to government services.

However, the effective salary hike may be between 75 percent and 80 percent after a final review of the commission's recommendations, insiders say.

The highest basic salary could be around Tk 80,000 a month, up from Tk 40,000 now, while the lowest scale might be increased to Tk 8,200 from the existing Tk 4,100.

The basic salaries for the cabinet secretary or similar posts may be raised to Tk 90,000 to Tk 1 lakh from the existing Tk 45,000.

Some of the existing 20 grades might be merged to make 16 grades, most likely the ones between 10 and 20, they said.

For the first time, the commission has considered a nuclear family with six members, allowing the parents of public servants into the fold, while calculating family expenditures. Currently, a family means only four members, without the public servants' parents.

In the budget for the current fiscal year, Tk 28,709 crore had been allocated for around 13 lakh government employees.