World

Government Employees to Receive Pay Hike This Month, MPO Teachers Deferred

By Rejaul Karim Byron

Government officers and employees will receive four months’ salary under the new pay scale, including three months’ arrears, in the last week of this month. However, teachers and staff under the MPO scheme, as well as judges and judicial service employees, will have to wait longer. Implementing the new pay scale for MPO teachers and employees, and for judicial staff, could take until November or December, according to finance ministry officials involved with the proceedings. The ministry has already issued a circular making the new pay structure for public servants effective retroactively from July, updating the iBAS++ software accordingly. Public servants normally receive their monthly salaries on October 23 or 24. Once the respective ministries, divisions and subordinate offices enter the approved schedule into the software, the updated salaries alongside arrears will be processed and disbursed with October’s pay. Finance ministry officials said the delay for MPO institutions, specifically madrasas and technical schools, is due to manual payroll calculation processes, which have held up the circular. As of 2025, there are 5.87 lakh MPO‑affiliated teachers and employees, including 4.32 lakh teachers, according to data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, the central government agency under the education ministry responsible for collecting, storing, and disseminating education statistics and information. Meanwhile, the secretary‑level committee failed to resolve the implementation of the new pay structure based on recommendations for the judiciary. Consequently, a separate cabinet committee, chaired by the finance minister, was formed. The Judicial Service Pay Commission recommended raising the judicial allowance to 100 percent of basic pay, up from the current 30 percent, along with additional perks. Once the cabinet committee decides on the recommendations, the finance ministry will issue a circular to make the new pay scale effective for the judicial service. The new pay scale will take effect retroactively from July 1, 2026, and will be implemented gradually over four phases across the current and upcoming fiscal years. Employees in Grades 10 to 20 will receive a 50 percent increase in their basic salaries in the first phase, effective from July 1. They will receive a further 25 percent increase from January 2027 and the remaining 25 percent from July 2027. For officials in Grades 1 to 9, basic salaries will rise by 40 percent in the first phase, followed by another 30 percent increase from January 2027 and the final 30 percent from July 2027. The fourth and final phase will begin on January 1, 2028, when the government will revise all other allowances for employees across the 20 grades. Full implementation of the restructured salaries and allowances will add an estimated Tk 1,05,580 crore to the government’s annual expenditure. Currently, Bangladesh’s public sector workforce includes 24 lakh civil and defence services employees and 9.25 lakh pensioners. Under the revised structure, the minimum basic pay will rise from Tk 8,250 to Tk 20,000, while the maximum fixed basic salary will increase from Tk 78,000 to Tk 1,56,000. Special grades remain in place for top officials: the cabinet secretary and principal secretary will draw a basic salary of Tk 1,72,000, while senior secretaries will receive Tk 1,64,000.