Officials of the National Pay Commission appointed in the past month to set pay hikes for the public servants held a meeting with finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Monday.
The meeting was held at the finance ministry at the secretariat in the capital Dhaka.
The interim government on July 27 appointed the commission with former finance secretary Zakir Ahmed Khan as its chair.
鈥業t is just a courtesy visit,鈥� said Zakir after the meeting.
The commission鈥檚 full-time members 鈥� former secretary Mohammad Ali Khan, former controller general of accounts Md Moslem Uddin and former ambassador Md Fazlul Karim 鈥� also attended the meeting.
Finance secretary Khairuzzman Majumder was also present in the meeting.
Officials attending the meeting said that the finance adviser asked the pay commission officials to submit the report timely.
The commission that will review salary structure, benefits, taxation, allowances for housing, medical and travel has been asked to submit its report within six months of its first meeting.
Zakir said they were yet to start the operations of the pay commission to be housed at the Cabinet Division.
He hoped that they would start the operations of the commission this week.
Officials said that the finance adviser also asked the pay commission officials to consider the overall revenue income of the government while preparing the report.
According to the gazette issued on July 27 in this connection, the commission has been asked to consider the cost of living for a family of six, education and healthcare expenses, economic growth, government fiscal capacity, poverty reduction strategies, and attracting and retaining skilled civil servants while reviewing pay.
Under the current pay scale, introduced in 2015 by the recommendation of the eighth pay commission, the highest basic pay is Tk 78,000 and the minimum basic pay Tk 8,250.
The previous pay commission, headed by former Bangladesh Bank governor Mohammed Farashuddin, was appointed in November 2013.
The Awami League-led regime which was ousted almost a year ago amid a mass uprising implemented the major recommendations of the previous pay commission in two phases 鈥� salary hike since July 2015 and other benefits since July 2016.
The 鈥榃hite Paper on the State of the Bangladesh Economy鈥� which was submitted to the interim government in past December, criticised the 2015 pay hikes by almost 100 per cent, describing those as an attempt to appease the bureaucracy following the controversial 2014 Jatiya Sangsad elections.
