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Published on October 19, 2015
The approval was given in the regular meeting of the cabinet at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the cabinet gave final approval to the draft amendments of six bills seeking enhancement of almost double the salaries and allowances of the President, Prime Minister, Speaker, Chief Justice, Ministers and Deputy Speaker, Appellate Division judges, High Court Division judges, state ministers, deputy ministers and parliament members.
The six bills, proposed for amendments, are: The President's (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Prime Minister's (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Ministers, Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers' (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Speaker and Deputy Speaker's (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Members' of Parliament (Remuneration and Allowances) (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and The Supreme Court Judges' (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill, 2015, he said.
The cabinet secretary said that all the six bills would go to the President for approval since these are Finance Bills. After that, the bills would be sent to parliament.
He said the increased salaries would be made effective from July 1, 2015 while the allowances from July 1, 2016.
About the background of increasing the salaries of the President, the Prime Minister and others concerned, the cabinet secretary said whenever the salaries and allowances of the public servants are revised; the salaries and allowances of those in constitutional posts are also revised afterwards.
In this connection, he said such revision is being made in line with the increase in salaries and allowances of public servants. According to the draft amendments, the monthly salary of the President would go up to Tk 1,20,000 from the current Tk 61,200, while the Prime Minister's salary would be increased to Tk 1,15,000 from the current Tk 58,600.
The insurance coverage for the President during air travel has been raised to Tk 27,00,000 from the existing Tk 15,00,000 while that of the discretionary fund would remain at Tk 2,00,00,000.
The insurance coverage for the Prime Minister during air travel has also been proposed to increase to Tk 25,00,000 instead of Tk 14,00,000 while that of the discretionary Fund has been increased to Tk 1,50,00,000 from the existing Tk 1,00,00,000.
The salaries of the Speaker has been proposed to raise to Tk 1,12,000 from the existing Tk 57,200 while that of the Chief Justice to Tk 1,10,000 from the existing Tk 56,000.
The salaries of the Ministers alongside the Deputy Speaker, Opposition Leader in the House, Chief Whip and Appellate Division judges have been proposed to raise to Tk 1,05,000 instead of the existing Tk 53,100.
The salaries of the High Court Division judges have been increased to Tk 95,000 from the existing Tk 49,000 while that of the State Ministers, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, and Whip to Tk 92,000 from the existing Tk 47,800.
The salaries of the Deputy Ministers have been proposed to increase to Tk 86,500 from the existing Tk 45,150 while that of the parliament members to Tk 55,000 from the existing Tk 27,500.
Besides, the expenditure allowances, house allowances in case of private houses, insurance coverage during air travel, daily allowances and discretionary fund and other allowances of the concerned persons have also been raised.
He said the official order of the eighth pay scale for the public servants alongside the military personnel is likely to be published within this month or by the first week of next month.
The cabinet meeting also endorsed a proposal for sending the "Money Laundering Prevention (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015" to parliament secretariat at the earliest for enacting it as a law.
Besides, the cabinet was apprised that Bangladesh has become the chair of Global Forum on Migration and Development for 2016, the International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka has been upgraded to the second category from the third category by the Unesco and Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman has become the "Central Bank Governor of the Year 2015 for Asia".
It (cabinet) expressed satisfaction over these achievements.
Ministers and state ministers attended the meeting while concerned secretaries were present.
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