New pay commission formed to review public sector salaries

The finance ministry has formed a 23-member pay commission for public officials and employees under the National Pay Scale with former finance secretary Zakir Ahmed Khan as its head.

The finance ministry yesterday issued a circular to this end which says while generating recommendations the commission will consider cost of living of a family of not more than six members including parents.

In the circular, the commission has been tasked to submit a report within six months of the first meeting.

According to the circular, four of the 23 members including the commission head are full-time members while the rest 19 are part-time members.

On Thursday, the advisory council of the interim government during a meeting decided to form the new pay commission, marking a key move towards adjusting salaries in line with inflation.

As per terms of reference, the new commission will recommend on nine key issues including a timely and appropriate pay scale for government officials and employees and specialised job-holders including in semi-government and autonomous institutions, state-owned enterprises, state-owned banks and financial institutions, public universities, and state-owned industries.

Besides, the commission will recommend how the pay scale will be effective if the government officials and employees pay their income taxes directly.

Also, it will recommend to fix different benefits for the public officials and employees including house-rent, medical allowance, dearness allowance, and festival bonus.

Besides, the commission will suggest a method to adjust salaries in line with inflation.

Furthermore, it will recommend fixing appropriate and timely pension and other post-retirement benefits.

Also, the new commission will recommend how government officials and employees' job performances could be evaluated for the pay scale.

While working for the report, other issues that the commission will consider include education and medical expenses for not more than two children of a family, the country's economic growth, and government assets.

Apart from the commission head, the three other full-time members are former secretary Mohammad Ali Khan, former controller general of accounts Mohammad Moslem Uddin, and former ambassador Fazlul Karim.

Eleven of the part-time members are former comptroller and auditor general Ahmed Ataul Hakeem, former government official Mohammad Zahid Hossain, former secretary Zisan Ara Arafunnesa, Maj Gen (retd) AIM Mustafa Reza Noor, Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Habibur Rahman, former grade-I official Tahmina Begum, Chairman of Dhaka University's accounting department Prof Maksudur Rahman Sarker, Prof Shamsul Alam Bhuiyan of Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics at Bangladesh Agricultural University, Prof AKM Masud of Industrial and Production Engineering Department of BUET, former chairman of Bangladesh Medical University's internal medicine department Prof Syed Atiqul Haq, and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Director General Prof AK Enamul Haque.

Besides, eight more part-time members will be a defense ministry-nominated representative of the armed forces, a law ministry-nominated representative of the law and justice division, a public administration ministry-nominated representative, a public security division-nominated representative, president of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh, president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, additional secretary (office regulation, implementation, law and state-owned enterprise) of the finance division, and additional secretary (implementation) of finance division.

A secretary or additional secretary appointed by the public administration ministry will be the member secretary of the commission which in future will be able to co-opt part-time member if necessary.

Under the Eighth National Pay Scale introduced in 2015, government salaries saw significant hikes. In the highest of 20 grades, the basic salary was raised by 95 percent to a fixed rate of Tk 78,000, while the lowest grade saw a 101 percent hike to Tk 8,250.

At present, the government employs around 15 lakh officials and staff across the country.