After Delhi govt, now central govt wants 200% hikes in MPs’ pay

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Weeks after Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal government proposed hiking the salaries of legislators in the city assembly, the central government too appears to have found the idea quite tempting.

The parliamentary affairs ministry, Venkaiah Naidu, has reportedly proposed to double the the salary of lawmakers in Lok Sabh and Rajya Sabha.

NDTV reported that the salary hike could happen as early as in the Budget session of Parliament next year.

According to the proposals, the monthly salary of parliamentarians will be doubled from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1,00,000 and office and constituency allowances from Rs. 45,000 to Rs. 90,000 taking their monthly remuneration to Rs 2.8 lakh.

However, the members of parliament have reportedly expressed their ‘displeasure’ over the hike in basic pay as this will likely put them in the higher tax band. They instead want the increase in their allowances.

The finance ministry, for its part, believed to be considering another option which will link the salary of MPs to the Pay Commission, a panel responsible for determining the pay of public servants.

Its proposals intend to bring the basic pay of MPs at Rs 1,000 more than a secretary (bureaucrat) in the central government and the salary of ministers at Rs. 10,000 more than the cabinet secretary.

However, it proposes to bring the Prime Minister’s salary to  1 1/2 times that of the cabinet secretary’s.

The revision, if it goes ahead is likely to cause outrage by ordinary public, who have critical of Indian lawmakers’ conduct inside the parliament.

The just concluded winter session of both Houses were marred by continuous disruptions. In his concluding remarks, the Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President, Hamid Ansari’ had asked the parliamentarians to introspect their conducts.

The last revision in the MPs’ pay was in 2010.

 

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