Bangladesh Eyes First-Week August Gazette for 9th Pay Scale After Cabinet Approval

Bangladesh is preparing to publish the gazette for a new pay structure for government employees in the first week of August, subject to cabinet approval, as the review committee examining the Ninth National Pay Commission recommendations enters the final stage of its work.

The committee is expected to hold two or three more meetings before finalising its recommendations, according to a member who attended the latest session. The government is then expected to move ahead with the gazette once the cabinet approves the proposals.

The sixth meeting of the committee was held on Wednesday at the Secretariat, chaired by Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Ghani, who also heads the review committee. The meeting reviewed various aspects of the pay commission’s recommendations and discussed in detail shortcomings in the previous pay structure.

A member of the review committee, speaking to Ajker Patrika on condition of anonymity, said: “We need to hold two to three more meetings to finalise the decision after reviewing the pay commission’s recommendations. At this stage, each meeting is examining the finer details. We are looking into issues to ensure that government officers and employees do not feel any dissatisfaction over the new pay structure.”

The member said the Eighth Pay Scale contained several errors and that the committee was working carefully to prevent any such mistakes in the new structure. After the Eighth Pay Scale was announced in 2015, teachers at public universities launched protests. The previous structure also did not specify how salaries of MPO-listed teachers would be increased. Those issues were later resolved by a cabinet committee on removing pay disparities.

Sources in the review committee said members had agreed in principle to make the basic salary effective from 1 July 2026 and allowances from 1 July 2027. The committee, however, plans to leave the final decision on whether to implement both together or in phases to the cabinet, as was done under the Eighth Pay Scale in 2015.

Committee discussions also covered raising basic salaries of government employees by up to 100% under the new structure. Most members favoured giving relatively larger increases to lower-grade employees rather than applying a uniform rate across all grades. The committee also discussed restructuring various allowances, including house rent, medical and transport benefits.

The previous interim government formed the Ninth National Pay Commission on 27 July 2025. The commission submitted its report on 21 January. The interim administration left office without implementing the new pay structure, leaving the matter for the elected government.

The current government formed the committee to review the pay commission’s recommendations on 8 February.

A member of the review committee said the gazette for the new pay structure under the Eighth Pay Commission had been published two years and 21 days after that commission was formed. By contrast, 11 months and 21 days have passed since the Ninth Pay Commission was formed. The member said the review was being carried out quickly, taking into account the change in government and the fact that public employees have been receiving salaries under the previous structure for more than 10 years.

Governments in Bangladesh had generally introduced a new pay structure every five years, but no new structure has been announced since 2015. As a result, many employees have reached the final step of their pay grades, halting their annual increments. One official said the number of annual increment steps may be increased under the new structure.

Members of the review committee declined to specify which elements of the Eighth Pay Commission recommendations were being altered. One official said the pay structure would be finalised in the cabinet and that the matter was being treated with such confidentiality that even the agenda of review committee meetings was not fixed in advance.

An official from the Finance Division involved in the pay structure process said several statutory regulatory orders, or SROs, would need to be issued in connection with allowances under the new structure. Drafts of those SROs are now being prepared, the official said, and they will be updated once the committee finalises its recommendations before being issued in line with the cabinet’s decision.

Md Nazrul Islam, coordinator of the Inter-Ministerial Employees’ Association, told Ajker Patrika: “All government employees are waiting for the gazette of the new pay structure. The interim government had already advanced much of the work. If there is any delay now, it will send the wrong message to many. We believe the government will announce the new pay structure taking market conditions into account.”

Regular cabinet meetings are usually held on Thursdays. If the government wants to publish the gazette for the Ninth Pay Scale in the first week of August, cabinet meetings would be due before then on 23 and 30 July, according to the report. Officials said that once the cabinet approves the new pay structure, the gazette will be published after vetting by the Law Ministry.