Monday 13 February 2012 Government 2.0: The Road Ahead
Cabinet hikes MPs' allowances

The allowance hike comprises a raise of Rs 5,000 each in their constituency and office expense allowances

New Delhi: Bowing to persistent pressure from dissatisfied MPs, the Union Cabinet on Monday decided to hike the allowances of parliamentarians by Rs 10,000 per month, but left their three-fold salary hike unaltered.

The allowance hike comprises a raise of Rs 5,000 each in their constituency and office expense allowances, reports IANS.

The cabinet met here under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reconsider and suitably amend the draft of the MPs' Salary Hike Bill it cleared last week.

A section of MPs was demanding a 500 per cent increase in the parliamentarians' pay of Rs 16,000 a month and severely criticised the three-fold hike the government proposed.

Sources said that the cabinet gave its nod to a hike in the non-taxable perks —constituency and office allowances — given to MPs but decided not to alter the 300 per cent raise in their monthly salary — from Rs 16,000 a month to Rs 50,000.

The latest decision comes two days after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee met the protesting MPs over the issue. Though it remains to be seen if the parliamentarians agree to the additional hike, the sources said Mukherjee has already taken them into confidence.

The government earlier on Friday cleared the salary hike proposal and doubled some other perks, but dissatisfied MPs from various parties stalled Lok Sabha proceedings demanding more.

An MP at present gets Rs 16,000 as monthly salary and a daily allowance of Rs 1,000 for each day when Parliament is in session or taking part in House Committee meetings. This has also been doubled.

Besides, a member is entitled to a constituency allowance of Rs 20,000 a month and an office expense allowance of Rs 20,000 each month. Sources said the government has hiked these allowances each by Rs 5,000 more.

MPs' conveyance allowance has gone up from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4 lakh. Spouses of MPs are entitled to free train travel from their place of residence to Delhi. They also get up to eight free plane tickets from their place of residence to Delhi.

The bill seeking amendments to the Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament Act, 1954, will now be tabled in parliament —most likely on Wednesday to be passed by both Houses before the hike is actually implemented.

The increase will be given with retrospective effect since the beginning of the current Lok Sabha, the 15th, which means MPs will get arrears from May 2009.

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