A 23-member Pay Commission led by former finance secretary Zakir Ahmed Khan has submitted a comprehensive report recommending significant salary and allowance increases for Bangladesh’s government employees. The proposal, if implemented, could more than double current pay levels. The commission suggested raising the minimum basic salary from 8,250 taka to 20,000 taka and the maximum from 78,000 taka to 160,000 taka, with overall increases ranging from 100 to 140 percent.

The government currently spends 1.31 trillion taka annually on 1.4 million employees and 900,000 pensioners. Implementing the new structure could require an additional 1.06 trillion taka. Separate reports have also been prepared for the Judicial Service Pay Commission and the Armed Forces. A 10-member high-level committee led by the Cabinet Secretary has been formed to analyze all three reports and finalize a phased implementation plan.

The proposed pay scale aims to reduce the salary ratio between the highest and lowest grades from 1:9.4 to 1:8 while keeping the existing 20-grade structure. Special pay steps have been recommended for top administrative positions, to be announced later by official notification.