Bangladesh News

The cabinet yesterday approved six proposals to increase salaries and privileges of the president, the prime minister, the speaker and the chief justice up to 83 percent, consistent with the pay hike of civil servants.

The salaries and benefits of the Supreme Court judges of the Appellate and the High Court divisions, deputy speaker, ministers, state ministers, deputy ministers and legislators will also be raised.

The weekly cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, approved proposal to amend the President’s (Remuneration and Privileges) Act, 1975, the Prime Minister’s (Remuneration and Privileges) Act, 1975 and the Ministers, Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers (Remuneration and Privileges) Act, 1973 to raise their salaries and perks.

Presently, a minister staying in a government house gets Tk 1.5 lakh for furniture. This amount will now be Tk 5 lakh. Similarly, the state ministers will get Tk 4 lakh instead of Tk 1 lakh, mentioned the proposals.

If the minister stays in a non-government house, he or she gets Tk 25,000 monthly while state ministers and deputy ministers get Tk 20,000 each as rent. The proposals suggested that the ministers be given Tk 45,000 house rent and state ministers and deputy ministers double the rent they now get.

The prime minister from now on will be able to allocate Tk 1 crore instead of Tk 50 lakh from her fund. The premier allocates money for various purposes, including disaster and social service activities.

The Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Allowance) Order, 1974 will be amended to implement the changed pay package for the speaker, the deputy speaker and legislators. The cabinet approved the amendment proposals as per which the speaker’s sumptuary allowance will be raised to Tk 8,000 from Tk 6,000. He will be able to donate up to Tk 4.5 lakh and the deputy speaker Tk 3 lakh. The speaker will get Tk 5 lakh while deputy speaker Tk 3 lakh a year for decoration and maintenance of their houses.

The lawmakers will get Tk 5,000 to Tk 7,000 for spending in their constituencies, sumptuary allowance Tk 2,000 to Tk 3,000, transport allowance Tk 40,000, Tk 6,000 to Tk 7,000 for maintaining office in their constituencies, Tk 400 to Tk 800 to attend meetings of the parliamentary standing committees, Tk 5 lakh to Tk 10 lakh for insurance, and telephone allowance for their residences Tk 6,000 to Tk 7,800, according to the proposals.

The cabinet also approved amendment proposals to Supreme Court Judges (Remuneration and Privileges) Ordinance, 1978 for raising salaries and benefits of the chief justice and the judges of the higher court. Apart from salary, monthly sumptuary allowance for the chief justice has been proposed at Tk 6,760 from Tk 5,200, for Appellate Division judges Tk 1,268 from Tk 975 and for HC judges Tk 845 from Tk 650.

Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet on November 11 approved the Seventh Pay Scale for some 1.2 million employees and officers on the government’s payroll, with retrospective effect from July 1, 2009. Monthly salary increase now ranges between 56 and 74 percent, with the highest pay fixed at Tk 40,000 (consolidated) for a secretary-level official from Tk 23,000 and lowest at Tk 4,100 from Tk 2,400 for an employee belonging to the lowest grade.

Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Abul Kalam Azad while briefing reporters after the cabinet meeting said the cabinet made the decision in view of the changed economic condition of the country and the recent salary hike for the public servants.

Following implementation of the new pay scale for the highest echelon in the republic, he said the salaries of the principal secretary and the establishment secretary will also have an 83 percent increase.

He said the acts, ordinances and orders will be placed in the parliament with the amendment proposals soon.