On the last day of the monsoon session on Tuesday, the assembly passed a bill that will make secretaries of MLAs and ministers richer by Rs12,000 annually.
The amendment to the The Maharashtra Legislature Members’ Pension Act, 1976, has hiked the salary of personal assistants to ministers, assembly speaker, council chairman, opposition leaders and MLAs to Rs8,000. Interestingly, their salary is much higher than their bosses — ministers draw Rs5,000 per month, while ministers of state get Rs4,600. The bosses, however, get a large number of perks and perquisites.
“Ministers and MLAs get many allowances, including mileage allowance, free air trips and allowances for sitting in legislature’s sessions and on various committees,” an official from the law and judiciary department said.
The bill has also increased the sumptuary fund of the speaker of the assembly and and chairman of the council to Rs6 lakh from the earlier Rs4 lakh. Chief minister gets Rs10 lakh as sumptuary allowance.
The bill has also hiked the pension amount of MLAs from Rs10,000 to Rs15,000.
The amendments will put an additional burden of Rs8.58 crore on the state exchequer annually.
The official said the salaries of the ministers and ministers of state were last revised in 2005 — they were doubled from Rs2,500 and Rs2,300, respectively. However, the salary of MLAs — who draw Rs2,000 per month — has not been revised for 10 years. “However, their mileage allowance was set at Rs25,000 per month last year; earlier the allowance was given on the basis of the kilometres they clocked,” the official said.
The amendments will be implemented with retrospective effect from June 1.
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