Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister introduced four amendment bills in the state assembly yesterday regarding the hike in salaries and allowances of ministers, speaker, deputy speaker, chief parliamentary secretaries and MLAs.
The proposed hike would put an additional annual burden of Rs 5.49 crores on the state exchequer. The Parliamentarians will have their salaries increased in less than two years.
As per the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pensions of members) Amendment bill, 2013, the total emoluments of the legislators in the state would now go up from Rs. 70,000 per month to Rs. 1,15,000 per month. Their salary is being revised from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 30,000 per month, telephone allowance from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 per month, constituency allowance from Rs 35,000 to Rs 60,000 per month and office allowance from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000 per month.
The pension of an MLA is proposed to be increased from Rs. 18,000 to Rs. 22,000 per month. The increase will entail an additional annual burden of Rs 4.45 crores on the state exchequer.
As per the Salaries and Allowances of Ministers (Himachal Pradesh) Amendment bill, 2013, the monthly salary of Chief Minister is proposed to be increased from Rs. 39,000 to Rs. 65,000 and Cabinet Ministers from Rs. 36,000 to Rs. 50,000. The salary of minsters of state will be increased from Rs. 33,000 to Rs. 48,000 and Deputy Ministers from Rs. 32,000 to Rs. 45,000.
The telephone allowance of ministers will go up from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 per month and they would also be entitled to a sumptuary allowance of Rs. 30,000 per month. The additional burden on the state exchequer in this account will be Rs. 72.72 lakhs per annum.
As per the HP Legislative Assembly Speaker’s and Deputy Speaker’s Salaries (Amendment) bill, 2013, monthly salary of the speaker is proposed to be enhanced from Rs 36,000 to Rs 50,000 and that of Deputy Speaker from Rs 33,000 to Rs 45,000, respectively. The telephone allowance is to be hiked from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 and they will be entitled to a sumptuary allowance of Rs 30,000 per month.
This would involve an additional expenditure of Rs. 13.20 lakhs annually. The monthly salary of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries is proposed to be increased from Rs. 23,000 to Rs. 40,000 and Parliamentary Secretaries from Rs. 22,000 to Rs. 35,000. It would involve an additional expenditure of Rs. 18.72 lakhs per annum.
The four amendment bills to increase salaries of the ministers, MLAs, speaker, deputy speaker and chief parliamentary secretaries were introduced in the state assembly in the budget session earlier this year. However, chief minister Virbhadra Singh had suddenly withdrawn them, after the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) walked out on a different issue (immediately after which the amendment bills in the salary hike were to be passed). Earlier, the salaries and allowances of the ministers and MLAs were raised in April, 2012.
It would put addtional burdon of 5.49 Cr on the state coffer. It is more important that it would entirely charge from public pocket
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