Salary hike of MPs based on review linked to inflation
On Monday, the parliamentary affairs ministry notified the revised salary for MPs, giving them a 24% hike.
New Delhi The latest salary hike of members of Parliament, which was done by the government by a new mechanism, is in sync with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision that lawmakers should not decide their own salary, said officials aware of developments. Under this government, the age-old practice of MPs deciding their own salaries was replaced by a new mechanism that will periodically review MPs’ remunerations based on inflation.
On Monday, the parliamentary affairs ministry notified the revised salary for MPs, giving them a 24% hike. This is the first time in the recent past when the ministry, and not a panel led by MPs, decided the salary structure based on inflation. Each MP will now get ₹1.24 lakh as against the current salary of ₹1 lakh and their pension too, was revised to ₹31,000 from the current rate of ₹25,000.
The lawmakers will also get a higher daily allowance of ₹2,500 — as against the earlier rate of ₹2,000 — for attending sessions and committee meetings. A senior Lok Sabha official told HT that the two presiding officers — Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla — will soon meet to enhance MPs’ constituency allowance, furniture allowance and office expenses.
The officials cited above pointed out that in 2016, Modi expressed a “strong view” that decisions on MPs’ salaries should either be taken by a body similar to the pay commission — which recommends pay hike for central government employees — or be linked to hikes given to certain posts and ranks from time to time.
Earlier, Parliament’s committee on salary and allowances for MPs would propose a hike and based on its recommendation, the government would bring a bill based on those recommendations in the House. Even though Indian MPs are paid lower salaries compared to many advanced countries, the self-appraisal system attracted criticism.
In 2018, then finance minister Arun Jaitley introduced a salary revision mechanism and discretionary adjustments by lawmakers were stopped. “Under the revised mechanism, the lawmakers’ salaries are now automatically adjusted every five years based on the Cost Inflation Index. The base salary in 2018 was set at ₹1 lakh per month, with additional allowances, including a constituency allowance of ₹70,000 and a daily allowance of ₹2,000, along with other benefits such as free housing, travel, and utilities,” said an official.
“Now, as per the Cost Inflation Index, MPs will receive a salary of ₹1.24 lakh per month — a 24% increase over a five-year period, which translates to an average annual increase of approximately 4.8%,” the official added.
During this period, central government employees got a 35% hike in dearness allowance. The MPs salary and allowances are a bare minimum support to public representatives for the services given to their constituents and the public at large, and their salary is still lower than many top-ranking officials such as the RBI governor, CAG and Cabinet Secretary.
While MPs have done away with the old system, some states still use it to decide salary hikes of lawmakers. This includes hikes announced by Karnataka (2025), Jharkhand (2024), Delhi (2023), West Bengal (2023), and Kerala (2018).