Cabinet approves bill to raise MPs' salary

Salaries of MPs will be hiked by more than three times with the Union Cabinet today approving a bill over which differences among ministers had surfaced earlier this week.

A meeting of the Cabinet gave its nod to the bill under which the basic salary of the MPs will be hiked from Rs16,000 to Rs50,000 per month.

However, this is much less than the figure of Rs80,001 recommended by the parliamentary committee which had said the MPs should get more than government secretaries as the former are above them in the hierarchy.

The Cabinet also approved increase in office expenses of parliamentarians from Rs20,000 to Rs40,000 per month. The constituency allowance has also been doubled from Rs20,000 to Rs40,000 per month, government sources said.

The limit for interest-free loan for MPs for buying a personal vehicle has been hiked four-fold to Rs4 lakh from the present Rs1 lakh.

The government also approved a hike in road mileage rate for vehicles used by MPs from Rs13 per km to Rs16 per km.

The spouse of a parliamentarian can now travel any number of times in first class or executive class, the sources said.

Pension benefits have also been increased from Rs8,000 to Rs20,000 per month.

Earlier this week, the Cabinet had deferred a decision on it in view of lack of consensus.

The dissenting ministers had referred to the farmers' suicide and allegations of corruption in Commonwealth Games while making the point that the hiking the salaries of MPs at the moment would be seen in the bad light.