The government on Sunday formed the Pay and Services Commission (PSC) with former Bangladesh Bank governor Mohammad Farashuddin as its chairman to review salaries of public servants. The Finance Ministry issued a circular on Sunday night announcing the formation of the 17- member commission with three permanent and 12 temporary members. The tenure of the commission will be six months. It will work to find out the disparities among various government cadres and services and suggest ways and means to resolve the inconsistency. A permanent pay commission will be formed after 6 months, based on the recommendations of the newly formed PSC.
Sources, however, said that this commission would ultimately turn into a permanent one after an elected government assumed the office.
Announcement of the decision to form a permanent pay commission was warmly greeted by 1.3 million public servants, who have long been demanding for such a body.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on October 30 said that a Pay and Services Commission (PSC) would be formed soon to examine the wage disparities and suggest ways to remove them.
Earlier on October 6, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared a flat 20 percent rise in dearness allowance for government employees and also disclosed the government plan to form a permanent pay commission for recommending hike in salaries and allowances of government employees.
The government issued a gazette notification the next day, granting the dearness allowance that said it would take retrospective effect from July 1. The number of government employees is now around 13 lakh.
The 7th Pay Commission was formed in 2007 during the caretaker government regime while the present government raised the wages of government employees on July 1, 2009.
-With The Independent input
