Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 16 (ANI): The Union Cabinet on Monday deferred its decision on a three-fold revision of salaries of Members of Parliament.

The proposal, pending since May 2006, is to hike MPs’ salaries from s 16,000 to Rs 50,000.

The bill also proposed a hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) from from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000.

MPs currently get Rs 16,000 per month as salary while a secretary to the government gets Rs 80,000 a month.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee on Salaries, Allowances and Pensions, headed by Congress MP Charan Das Mahant, had proposed salary of Rs 80,001, arguing that an MP’s salary should be at least a rupee more than that of an officer of the rank of Secretary (Rs 80,000), whom an MP outranks in the list of protocol.

The recommendation to hike the salary was made taking into account consumer price index and the wage index for skilled urban labour.

Apart from the base salary, an MP gets a daily allowance of Rs 1,000 for each day when Parliament is in session or a sitting of a House committee is scheduled.

A member is entitled for constituency allowance of Rs 20,000 per month and office expense allowance of another Rs 20,000 per month.

Every MP can avail 34 single air journeys during a year with spouse or any number of companions or relatives.

The last hike in salaries and allowances of 795 MPs — 545 members of Lok Sabha and 250 members of Rajya Sabha — came into effect about 10 years ago. (ANI)