Hike in salaries of president, PM, speaker gets cabinet nod
The Cabinet yesterday approved six draft amendment Bills seeking to increase the salaries and allowances of the President, Prime Minster, ministers, state ministers, deputy ministers, Members of Parliament, Speaker, deputy Speaker, Chief Justice, and judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and High Court, just a month after salaries of government employees were hiked. The approval was given at a regular weekly meeting held at the Secretariat, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Salaries and allowances will be made effective from July 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016 respectively, after getting approval from Parliament. Cabinet secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan briefed reporters after the meeting and said the six bills are: The Presidents Remuneration and Privileges (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Prime Ministers Remuneration and Privileges (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Ministers, Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers Remuneration and Privileges (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Speaker and Deputy Speakers 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.
On September 7, the Cabinet approved the eight pay scales for government employees. According to the draft, the President will receive a monthly salary of Tk 1,20,000 against the current Tk 61,200; the Prime Minister Tk 1,15,000, up from Tk 58,600, the Speaker of Parliament Tk 1,12,000 instead of Tk 57,200; and the Chief Justice Tk 1,10,000, up from Tk 56,000.
Besides, the salaries of ministers, deputy Speaker, Leader of the Opposition, chief whip and judges of the Appellate Division will be raised to Tk 1,05,000 from Tk 53,100, while High Court judges will receive Tk 95,000 instead of Tk 49,000 per month as salary.
The state ministers, deputy Leader of the Opposition and whips will get Tk. 92,000 against Tk. 47,800 per month as salary and deputy ministers Tk. 86,500 instead of Tk. 45,150.
Each lawmaker will draw Tk. 55,000 against Tk. 27,500 as salary per month. Besides, expenditure allowances, house allowances in case of private houses, insurance coverage during air travel, daily allowances and discretionary fund and other allowances of those concerned have also been hiked.
The insurance coverage for the President during air travel has also been increased to Tk. 27,00,000 from the existing Tk. 15,00,000, while the discretionary fund will remain at Tk. 2,00,00,000.
The insurance coverage for the Prime Minister during air travel has also been hiked to Tk. 25,00,000 instead of Tk. 14,00,000 while the discretionary fund has been increased to Tk. 1,50,00,000 from the existing Tk. 1,00,00,000.
The Cabinet secretary said the salaries would be effective from July 1, 2015 and the allowances from July 1, 2016.
All the six bills will be tabled before Parliament after getting the Presidents approval, he added.
Bhuiyan further said the relevant government order of the eighth pay scales for the public servants along with military personnel is likely to be published within this month or by the first week of next month.
The Cabinet meeting also approved a proposal to send the Money Laundering Prevention (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, to the Parliament Secretariat within the shortest possible time.
The Cabinet secretary said the Cabinet today was apprised about a position paper regarding the age limit for the retirement of those engaged in scientific research.
In this connection, the Cabinet directed the authorities to review the related policy of the neighbouring countries and again present a specific proposal.
