Bangladesh names six ministers to review pay anomalies as some higher grades yield less income

A Tk700 salary reversal puts the new scale under scrutiny

Bangladesh has formed a committee of six ministers to review anomalies in its National Pay Scale 2026 after employees submitted calculations showing a Grade 12 worker receiving Tk37,700 in basic salary while a colleague in the higher Grade 11 receives Tk37,000. Another calculation shows a promotion from Grade 10 to Grade 9 potentially reducing basic pay and house rent allowance combined by Tk600 a month.

Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury will lead the review. The committee can recommend changes to salary grades, examine complaints about promotion and seniority, and consider new risk allowances or changes to existing payments.

The Cabinet Division notification is described as dated 2 November, although its issue date has also been given as 1 November and Thursday, 5 November. Its remit covers both immediate complaints and future changes to the relationship between grades and allowances.

The intervention follows the first payments under the new structure on 1 November for employees whose salary calculations had been completed. Those payments included arrears calculated from July, with adjustments for special allowances already received.

Employees had already challenged the calculations during the October payroll rollout, when access problems in the government's financial management system threatened to delay some payments. The committee now gives those complaints a ministerial review process. Changes to salaries or allowances will depend on its recommendations and subsequent government instructions.

The central problem is easy to understand: a grade sets a salary range, while a worker's previous pay and accumulated increases help determine the actual amount within it. When those rules meet new salary steps and different allowance rates, the results can reverse the expected order between colleagues.

How Grade 12 overtakes Grade 11

Grade 11 has a starting basic salary of Tk25,000 under the new structure, compared with Tk24,300 for Grade 12. At entry, the higher grade therefore pays Tk700 more. The reversal appears when existing employees are placed into the new salary scale.

In the example submitted by employees, the Grade 11 worker had a basic salary of Tk23,660 on 30 June. Of that amount, Tk11,160 represented increases accumulated above the starting salary under the previous structure. Adding those increases to the new starting salary of Tk25,000 produces Tk36,160.

The new scale has no salary step at that exact amount, so the employee moves to the next available step, Tk37,000. A salary step is a fixed amount within a grade, rather than a freely chosen figure.

The Grade 12 worker had been earning Tk23,580, including accumulated increases of Tk12,280. Adding those increases to the new starting salary of Tk24,300 produces Tk36,580. Moving to the next available step puts that worker at Tk37,700.

Before the change, the Grade 11 employee earned Tk80 more than the Grade 12 colleague, using the figures Tk23,660 and Tk23,580. After placement in the new scale, the Grade 12 employee earns Tk700 more. The difference between the two salaries has therefore shifted by Tk780 in favour of the lower grade.

Employees want the Finance Division to examine how previous increases and the new salary steps interact, alongside the formal ranking of grades. Their complaint concerns the placement calculation for existing staff, rather than the starting salaries alone.

Why a promotion can reduce monthly income

A second example concerns a worker moving from Grade 10 to Grade 9. Basic salary rises from Tk49,700 to Tk51,000, an increase of Tk1,300. The difficulty comes from a lower percentage for house rent allowance.

At a rate of 50%, house rent on Tk49,700 is Tk24,850. At 45%, house rent on Tk51,000 is Tk22,950. The allowance falls by Tk1,900, more than the increase in basic salary.

Basic pay and house rent together consequently fall from Tk74,550 to Tk73,950. That is the Tk600 monthly reduction cited in the complaint. These two components alone would leave the employee with Tk7,200 less over 12 months.

The 50% and 45% rates match the new housing schedule for Grades 15 through 10 and Grades 9 through 5 in Dhaka North and South city corporation areas. Housing rates elsewhere are lower, with separate schedules for other major cities and remaining areas.

Timing matters for employees calculating their next payment. The new scale schedules other allowance changes for 1 January 2028, while a Finance Division instruction dated 19 October kept house rent, medical and other allowances at the rates effective on 30 June until further orders. The promotion example describes the effect of applying the new housing percentages; current payroll calculations also have to follow the instructions governing when those rates begin.

Seniority complaints reach several ministries

Employees from the Finance Division, Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Liberation War Affairs, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, and Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism have raised concerns with Finance Secretary Md Khairuzzaman Majumder.

Their applications cover salary placement, the order of grades, seniority, eligibility for higher grades and housing payments. Some employees also complain that similar duties carry different grades, or that a post's grade does not match its responsibilities.

The new scale reduces the waiting period for a higher grade without promotion from 10 years to eight. An employee can therefore gain access to a better salary range while remaining in the same post. A promotion, by contrast, involves moving to a higher post.

Employees say the service based route can bring the salaries of junior and senior colleagues closer together and, in some circumstances, allow a junior worker to earn more. The committee will have to examine those complaints alongside the rules used to carry previous salary increases into the new structure.

Technical problems in iBAS++, the government's financial management platform, have added another difficulty. Offices use the system to determine pay and prepare salary bills, while some provisions of the September gazette have required further explanation. Employees can therefore face both a dispute about the correct calculation and a delay in getting a bill processed.

Who will conduct the review?

The panel's formal remit is to review the determination, expansion and revision of employee salary grades and allowances. Alongside convener Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, its members are Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Md Asaduzzaman, Education Minister A N M Ehsanul Haque Milon, Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain, and State Minister for Public Administration and Food Md Abdul Bari.

The committee will examine employee complaints and recommend how to resolve them. It can also propose upgrading or downgrading particular posts and adjusting the relationship between grades.

Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Gani, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister A B M Abdus Sattar, Finance Secretary Md Khairuzzaman Majumder and Public Administration Secretary Md Kamruzzaman Chowdhury will assist the panel. Secretaries from other relevant ministries and divisions may also take part.

The Finance Division will provide secretarial support. The committee can bring in additional members and meet as required. No deadline has been set for submitting recommendations or implementing changes.

Risk allowances are also part of the remit

The review extends beyond basic salary. Ministers can recommend new risk allowances and other payments, as well as increases or decreases in existing allowance rates. A risk allowance is extra pay attached to duties involving particular dangers.

The new pay arrangements already provide for existing risk allowances to continue in sectors including the Fire Service, Ansar, Village Defence Party, National Security Intelligence and nursing. The committee's remit creates room to consider further payments or changes to current arrangements.

Salary grades and allowances need to be considered together because a higher basic salary can be offset by a lower allowance, as the Grade 10 promotion example shows. The same review must also deal with how much employees receive now and how much they are scheduled to receive when later phases begin.

How the rollout reached November

The Ninth National Pay Commission was formed on 27 July 2025 and submitted its report on 21 January 2026. Former finance secretary Zakir Ahmed Khan chaired the commission, which considered nearly 300,000 responses to an online survey alongside inflation and living standards.

The government then moved from recommendations to approval, salary calculation and payment. The main dates are:

• 21 January 2026: The commission submitted its proposed salary structure.
• 21 April 2026: A committee of 10 members, headed by Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Gani, was formed to recommend implementation measures.
• 1 July 2026: The new scale took effect retrospectively.
• 31 August 2026: The cabinet approved the new structure.
• 17 September 2026: The Service (Pay and Allowances) Order, 2026 was dated.
• 5 to 25 October 2026: The salary determination window described in the rollout account.
• 1 November 2026: Employees who completed the process received increased salaries with arrears.

An earlier payroll timetable had set 20 October as the completion deadline. Employees continued to encounter calculation and system problems as offices prepared November payments.

The rollout covers a large administrative task. The pay determination exercise described in October involved 1.4 million government employees, 800,000 pensioners and 600,000 teachers under the Monthly Pay Order scheme, a combined 2.8 million people. MPO teachers receive government support towards salaries at participating educational institutions.

The salary increase arrives in stages

The Service (Pay and Allowances) Order sets the minimum basic salary at Tk20,000 for Grade 20, up from Tk8,250. Grade 1 basic salary is Tk156,000, twice the previous Tk78,000. The structure retains 20 grades.

The increase is being introduced in phases. Through December 2026, Grades 9 and above receive 40% of the additional basic pay, while Grades 10 through 20 receive 50%. These percentages apply to the increase, rather than the employee's entire salary.

From 1 January to 30 June 2027, the shares rise to 70% and 75%, respectively. The full increase is scheduled for 1 July 2027. Other allowance changes follow on 1 January 2028, with existing festival and Bengali New Year allowance rates continuing through December 2027.

The special allowance previously paid to employees is being withdrawn, and amounts already received from July are adjusted against arrears. A household's payment therefore depends on its salary placement, the phase applying to its grade, allowance rules and deductions from arrears.

The implementation plan puts the additional cost at Tk105,380 crore over three years. It allocates Tk37,372 crore to the current fiscal year, Tk44,838 crore to 2027 and Tk23,170 crore to 2028. A crore is 10 million, making the total about Tk1.05 trillion.

Commission proposals changed before implementation

The January commission recommended salary increases ranging from 100% to 142%, including a Grade 1 salary of Tk160,000. The subsequent order set that grade at Tk156,000. Grade 20 retained the proposed Tk20,000 minimum.

Allowances also changed between the proposal and the order. The commission recommended raising the Bengali New Year allowance from 20% to 50% of basic salary. The order instead sets the new rate at 15%, with existing rates continuing until the scheduled allowance change.

Pension recommendations included increases of nearly 100% for payments below Tk20,000, 75% for Tk20,000 to Tk40,000 and 55% above Tk40,000. The order uses more detailed pension bands and provides increases ranging from 55% to 100%.

Medical allowances show another difference. The commission proposed Tk10,000 for pensioners over 75 and Tk5,000 for those under 55. The order sets age bands ranging from Tk3,000 up to age 50 to Tk6,000 after age 70. For serving employees, the scheduled medical allowance is Tk3,000 up to age 50 and Tk4,000 thereafter until retirement leave.

The budget adjustments accompanying the salary plan include a Tk20,000 crore increase in operating expenses in the revised 2025–26 budget. Plans also called for reducing development spending by Tk30,000 crore and increasing nondevelopment spending by Tk28,000 crore.

For employees awaiting a correction, the immediate issue is how the government will reconcile salary steps, seniority and allowance thresholds. The ministers have authority to recommend changes across all three, while final decisions remain with the government.

Key Points

• Six ministers will review salary grades, employee complaints and allowances under Bangladesh's National Pay Scale 2026.
• An employee calculation puts Grade 12 basic pay at Tk37,700, compared with Tk37,000 for a Grade 11 colleague.
• A promotion example shows basic pay and house rent combined falling by Tk600 when the new housing percentages are applied.
• The full basic salary increase is scheduled for 1 July 2027, with other allowance changes from 1 January 2028.
• The committee can recommend grade changes and new risk allowances. No deadline has been set for its recommendations.