Sadrul Aieen, Staff Reporter:

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said there is no plan for new pay scale or dearness allowance for government employees at the moment.

The finance minister gave this information in response to the question of Mokabbir Khan, Member of Parliament of the Public Forum, in the question and answer session of the Jatiya Sangsad on Tuesday (January 10).

  Speaker Shireen Sharmin Chowdhury presided over the question and answer table.

In response to Mokabbir Khan’s question, the Finance Minister said that the government issued the National Pay Scale Order in 2015, which is still in force.  In the past, government employees had the benefit of increment in pay by fixed amount every year in the pay scale order.

  But due to the provision of increase in percentage of the basic pay in the National Pay Scale 2015, the annual salary increase of the government employees at a fixed rate up to a certain limit, which has been contributing positively to the improvement of the standard of living of the government employees at all levels.

The finance minister said that in the post-corona global recession situation, there has been inflation in the world along with the increase in commodity prices, which has also affected Bangladesh.  The government has taken various steps to control inflation and normalize the market situation.

He said, in order to maintain the standard of living of the people with limited income in the prevailing situation, the government has launched the program of providing daily necessities at low cost through family card.

The government is trying to take practical steps to increase the financial capacity of the public.