The cabinet has approved Bangladesh’s long-awaited ninth pay scale for government employees at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman at the Cabinet Division in the Secretariat on Monday afternoon. The new structure will be implemented in three phases, raising salaries by between 100% and 142%. Basic pay for Grade 1 has been set at Tk156,000, while the minimum basic pay for Grade 20 will be Tk20,000.

The pay scale retains the existing 20 grades and introduces a monthly Tk3,000 allowance for employees’ children with disabilities for the first time. The cabinet also approved the Joint Services Instructions-2026 for the armed forces to align with the new salary scale. A 10-member committee, formed on April 21 and led by Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Gani, finalized the draft after reviewing recommendations from the Ninth National Pay Commission.

The commission had proposed raising minimum basic pay from Tk8,250 to Tk20,000 and maximum basic pay from Tk78,000 to Tk160,000. It estimated that implementation could require about Tk106,000 crore in additional annual funding, posing a major financing challenge for the government. The finance minister had said on June 11 that phased implementation would begin from July 1.