Higher Salaries Under New Pay Structure to Begin from Sunday, but Many Government Employees May Face Delays

PNN News Desk | Dhaka

The government has made preparations to begin paying increased salaries to government employees under the new pay structure from Sunday (November 1). However, many officials and employees may not receive their revised salaries on schedule because the process of salary fixation has not yet been completed.

For the time being, those affected will continue receiving salaries under the previous pay structure. Their increased salaries, along with three months of arrears, will be paid later after the necessary adjustments have been completed.

According to sources at the Finance Division of the Ministry of Finance, several administrative and technical complications remain in the implementation of the new pay scale.

The country has approximately 1.4 million government employees, 800,000 pensioners and 600,000 teachers under the Monthly Pay Order (MPO) system. A significant number of officials, employees and relevant institutions have yet to complete the process of determining salaries under the new structure.

As a result, it will not be possible to provide increased salaries to everyone simultaneously.

Several inconsistencies have emerged during the salary-fixation process, particularly regarding the sequence of different grades, provisions for higher grades, house rent allowances and financial benefits following promotions.

Delays in resolving these issues have made it difficult to finalise the exact salary entitlements of individual employees.

In addition, technical problems with the government's Integrated Budget and Accounting System, known as iBAS++, have created further obstacles to salary determination and disbursement.

Officials and employees from different ministries and government departments have submitted applications to Finance Secretary Md. Khairuzzaman Majumder seeking solutions to the complications arising during the implementation of the new pay structure.

Although the concerned offices have requested the necessary measures to address the problems, it has been learned that several ministries and departments will not be able to resolve all outstanding issues before November 1.

A responsible official of the Finance Division, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some complications had arisen because those involved in preparing the notification and implementing the new pay structure lacked sufficient experience.

He said initiatives had already been taken to resolve the inconsistencies and that advice was also being sought from experienced individuals.

As a result, many government officials and employees who had been waiting for increased salaries under the new structure will have to continue receiving their previous salaries for the time being.

The relevant sources said their entitled increased salaries and outstanding arrears would be adjusted and paid once the salary-fixation process was completed.