Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday announced a threefold increase in the emoluments of the President, the vice-president and the governors of states, and a nearly 100% hike for Members of Parliament.
He also rolled out a mechanism to fix salaries for parliamentarians, allowing an automatic revision every five years, indexed to inflation.
The hike for MPs, which has been a long-standing demand from lawmakers, will roll out from April 1 while the automatic revision mechanism will come into effect in 2023.
Officials said that an MP’s total emoluments are likely to go up from Rs 1.4 lakh to Rs 2.3 lakh per month. The basic salary will increase from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, as proposed in the finance bill. In addition, constituency allowance is likely to rise from Rs 45,000 to Rs 70,000 and office expenses and secretarial assistance from Rs 45,000 to Rs 60,000, said officials. There will, however, be a cut in travel allowances for MPs.
The monthly salary of the President has been revised to Rs 5 lakh , vice president Rs 4 lakh and governors Rs 3.5 lakh, Jaitley said in the budget speech. Their previous salaries were Rs 1.5 lakh, Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 1.1 lakh respectively. The proposal to hike the salary of the President, who was getting paid less than the top bureaucrat of the country after the implementation of the seventh pay commission, had been pending since last year.
{{/usCountry}}The monthly salary of the President has been revised to Rs 5 lakh , vice president Rs 4 lakh and governors Rs 3.5 lakh, Jaitley said in the budget speech. Their previous salaries were Rs 1.5 lakh, Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 1.1 lakh respectively. The proposal to hike the salary of the President, who was getting paid less than the top bureaucrat of the country after the implementation of the seventh pay commission, had been pending since last year.
{{/usCountry}}Jaitley said that there has been public debate and criticism with regard to the emoluments to the MPs, which, according to the current practice, allows them to fix their own salaries though a bill in Parliament.
“I am, therefore, proposing necessary changes to refix the salary, constituency allowance, office expenses and meeting allowance payable to Members of Parliament with effect from April 1, 2018…I am sure the honourable members will welcome this initiative and will not suffer such criticism in future,” he said.