DHAKA — Bangladesh plans to implement the proposed new pay scale for government officers and employees in phases starting in the 2026-27 fiscal year, with about 35,000 crore taka (about $2.9 billion) added to the new budget to fund the first stage, officials said.
The extra allocation will cover only half of the new basic pay. The pay scale will be rolled out in three steps: 50 percent of the new basic salary in the first year, the remaining 50 percent in the 2027-28 fiscal year, and allowances added in 2028-29.
The plan was drawn up after discussions with Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Rashed Ahmed Titumir, the prime minister’s adviser on finance ministry affairs. Implementation will begin in the next fiscal year once the prime minister gives the green light, the officials said.
The current government on April 21 reconstituted the earlier committee set up to frame recommendations from the National Pay Commission, the Judicial Service Pay Commission and the Armed Forces Pay Commission, a finance division official said on condition of anonymity. The committee recently submitted its views and proposed phasing in the ninth pay scale to ease fiscal pressure, the official said. The pay commission had also recommended a phased rollout, and the finance division has drawn up a work plan on that basis.
A.K. Enamul Haque, director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and a member of the National Pay Commission, said implementing the new pay structure all at once could add pressure on inflation, so a phased rollout is more rational. He said the commission had also recommended phasing in the new pay scale over three years to avoid pushing up market prices.
Haque said the goal of the new pay scale is not only higher salaries but also better public services and good governance. If an employee cannot maintain a minimum standard of living, it is difficult to expect efficiency and transparency from them, he said, adding that the move is meant to keep workers free of poverty-driven pressure.
The previous interim government formed the 23-member National Pay Commission 2025 under former finance secretary Zakir Ahmed Khan to draft the new pay structure. On January 22, the commission recommended raising government salaries and allowances by 100 percent to 140 percent. It proposed raising the lowest grade from 8,250 taka to 20,000 taka, and the top grade from 78,000 taka to 1,60,000 taka.
Implementing the full recommendation would require an additional 1,06,000 crore taka (about $8.8 billion), the official said. The government currently spends about 1,31,000 crore taka a year on roughly 14 lakh (1.4 million) civil servants and 9 lakh (900,000) pensioners.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report