Union Parishad (UP) members presently receive a monthly honorarium of only Tk 8000. Of this, Tk 4400 comes from the UP and the rest from the government. In most of the cases, however, the UP members only receive the Tk 3600 from the government. The UP members allege that they are deprived from their honorarium on pretext of low revenue collection and low income of the UP.
Experts on local government said that the honorarium of UP chairman and members is absolutely inadequate. As they are not receiving the UP part of the payment, their daily honorarium is less than Tk 120. They called for UP chairmen's honorarium to be raised to Tk 40,000 and that of members to Tk 20,000.
The Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum is an organisation of UP chairmen and members. Sabur Ali Shekh, chairman of Kalia Haripur union from Sirajganj Sadar is the joint secretary of the forum. Speaking to Prothom Alo, Sabur Ali said, "This honorarium is a dishonour to the UP chairmen and members. They are the people’s closest representatives, but they are getting paid less than the lowest wage of a garments worker."
The finance division of the finance ministry on 10 January 2017 issued a notification about the honorarium of the city corporation, zilla parishad, upazila parishad, pourashava and UP representatives. The notification announced Tk 8000 honorarium for UP chairmen and Tk 5000 for members. This notification was met with criticism and demands, following which the honorarium of UP chairmen and members revised in August 2017. According to that, the UP chairmen get Tk 10,000 in honorarium. Of this, the government's part is Tk 4500 and the UP's Tk 5500. And UP members honorarium is Tk 8000, the government part being Tk 3600 taka and the UP part Tk 4400.
Almost Tk 700,000 is required for the UP part of chairmen and members' honorarium. This has to be paid from the UP's own income. Because of insufficient revenue, the UP members are not getting their honorarium. The UP's largest income source is holding taxes. Local government experts, officials of the local government division and UP chairmen said that the average annual holding tax earnings of the UP is around Tk 400,000 to Tk 600,000.
For example, the annual holding tax of Duaria Union Parishad of Natore Lalpur upazila is Tk 800,000. Last fiscal year around Tk 400,000 holding tax was collected. Member of this UP, Ikramul Islam, told Prothom Alo, several times in various forums we discuss about our honorarium, but to no avail. Situation will not change if the UP's earnings increase.
At present the city corporation's mayor gets Tk 85,000 as monthly honorarium and councillors get Tk 35,000. The Zila Parishad chairman's honorarium is Tk 54,000 and members' Tk 25,000. 'A' grade pourashava mayor's honorarium is Tk 38,000. Upazila Parishad chairman's honorarium is Tk 40,000.
According to UP members, their honorarium is less than even the entertainment allowance of representatives of other local government institutions. Both Dhaka City mayors get Tk 10,000 each as entertainment allowance.
On 21 June in parliament, local government minister Tajul Islam said, at present there are 4,553 UPs in the country.
The UP forum proposed certain measures to increase the income of the UPs. The authority to lease out bazaars, jalmahal (water bodies) and ferry ghat (ferry terminals), and the revenue from this, should be handed over to the UPs. Land development tax should be increased from 1 to 2 per cent, and birth and marriage registration fee should be transferred to UPs.
Mohsin Ali, coordinator of the Governance Advocacy Forum, a non-government organisation working on local government issues, speaking to Prothom Alo said, the honorarium of UP chairmen and members is not realistic. Zila Parishad members do not have any visible work, but their honorarium is Tk 20,000 per month. But UP members have to move around daily for various types of work. Their honorarium should be revised in keeping with the times and demand.