NEW DELHI: The govt on Monday notified a 24% increase in salaries of members of Parliament (MPs), with effect from April 1, 2023, on the basis of the cost inflation index, taking their monthly remuneration to Rs 1.24 lakh from Rs 1 lakh earlier.
In a notification, the parliamentary affairs ministry said the daily allowance for sitting members, and pension and additional pension for every year of service in excess of five years for former members, have also been increased.
While the daily allowance has been increased from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500, pension for former MPs has been increased from Rs 25,000 per month to Rs 31,000 per month, it said. Daily allowance can be drawn by MPs while attending Parliament sessions and parliamentary committee meetings.
The additional pension for every year of service in excess of five years has been increased from Rs 2,000 per month to Rs 2,500 per month.
MP salary over the years
Constituency allowance, office expenses of MPs also up
Now, an MP will get Rs 1.24 lakh per month as salary, Rs 87,000 per month as constituency allowance as against Rs 70,000 earlier, and Rs 75,000 towards office expenses as against Rs 60,000 earlier. In the last revision in 2018, MPs’ salary was increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
Govt had put in place a sys- tem for automatic revision of salaries and allowances every five years by indexing it to in- flation — doing away with the practice of MPs making recom- mendations for fixing salaries.
During the Covid pandemic in 2020, govt slashed salaries of MPs and ministers by 30% for one year. Congress MP Harish Meena questioned the real gain that salary hike will bring to parliamentarians.
He argued the pre-hike salary of Rs 12 lakh was within the IT exemption brack- et while the increase of Rs 24,000 has brought the salary in the tax slab.
Bharat Adivasi Party MP Rajkumar Roat said he was happy with the increase in salary but govt should increase MPLADS fund to Rs 5 crore, as is available to MLAs in Rajasthan. He said MPs have to spend a lot of money in travel and catering to various emergencies in their constituencies, and the salary hike would provide some relief in view of price rise.