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The government is borrowing an additional Tk 5,000 crore from the banking system to clear October salaries and three months of outstanding arrears for civil servants under the newly approved pay scale. To facilitate the borrowing ahead of the scheduled November 1 payout, Bangladesh Bank has called an auction for rare 14-day special Treasury bills.
While the government typically issues 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day Treasury bills to meet short-term financing needs, 14-day special instruments are reserved for urgent, temporary cash-flow mismatches between revenue intake and expenditure. With this latest auction, total gross borrowing through Treasury bills and bonds will reach Tk 60,300 crore in October alone—marking the highest single-month borrowing since the incumbent administration assumed office. Gross borrowing stood at Tk 56,000 crore in July, Tk 50,000 crore in August, and Tk 41,500 crore in September. However, a significant portion of these funds has been directed toward rolling over maturing debt; central bank data indicates net bank borrowing stood at Tk 24,245 crore during the first quarter (July–September).
The escalating reliance on bank borrowing has driven up yields. The yield on 91-day Treasury bills rose from 8.13% on October 5 to 8.55% on October 26, despite surplus liquidity in the banking sector standing at Tk 4.42 lakh crore at the close of August. Central bank officials stated that an unexpected revenue shortfall compelled the government to seek bridge financing, adding that authorities plan to float Tk 32,000 crore in Shariah-compliant Sukuk bonds this fiscal year to curb reliance on conventional commercial bank debt.
The fiscal pressure comes amid severe revenue shortfalls. The National Board of Revenue (NBR), tasked with collecting Tk 6.04 lakh crore in FY 2026–27, accumulated a deficit of Tk 25,491 crore in the first two months alone. Former finance officials caution that issuing special Treasury bills to finance routine administrative payroll is economically alarming, warning that escalating expenditure without domestic revenue expansion will crowd out the private sector and create a persistent debt roll-over cycle.
Under the revised pay structure, minimum basic pay was raised from Tk 8,250 to Tk 20,000, while the top basic salary doubled from Tk 78,000 to Tk 1,56,000. Covering roughly 2.4 million civilian and defence personnel alongside 925,000 pensioners, the budget allocated Tk 1,31,284 crore for payroll and retirement benefits. Full implementation of the scale is projected to increase annual state expenditures by approximately Tk 1.05 lakh crore.
