Assam passes bills to hike MLAs’ salaries by 50%, CM to get ₹1.6 lakh per month

Assam assembly unanimously passed three Bills on Friday to increase salaries of all lawmakers by up to 50% without a single amendment.

Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami said usually the Amenities and Facilities Committee recommends revision of salaries of the MLAs, but this is the first time the pays were revised by a Pay Committee headed by former chief secretary PP Varma.

According to the three Acts, the salaries of the Assembly speaker, deputy speaker, chief minister, all ministers, Leader of the Opposition, other lawmakers and pension of former MLAs have been increased with effect from April 1.

The salaries of the speaker and the deputy speaker will be raised to ₹1.2 lakh and ₹1 lakh per month from the existing ₹80,000 and ₹75,000, an increase of 50% and 33.33% respectively.

Besides the salary component, both will get ₹30,000 as parliamentary assistance and sumptuary allowances, according to one of three Acts.

For the chief minister, the salary will go up to ₹1.3 lakh from ₹90,000, while his allowances for the two categories will become ₹34,000 from ₹17,000. So his total take away would be ₹1.64 lakh every month.

For the cabinet ministers and the leader of the opposition, the salary has been proposed to be raised to ₹1.1 lakh from ₹80,000 at present, while the allowances have been doubled to ₹30,000 from ₹15,000.

A minister of state will now get a salary of ₹1 lakh compared to the existing ₹75,000, while also drawing an additional ₹28,000 as parliamentary assistance and sumptuary allowances as against ₹14,000 a month.

A deputy minister’s salary will become ₹95,000 in place of ₹70,000 and the allowances will increase to ₹26,000 from ₹13,000, the Act said.

The salaries of all MLAs were hiked in a separate Act to ₹80,000 from the existing ₹60,000 per month, while doubling allowances for constituency, camp office and secretariat to ₹40,000.

In addition to the above emoluments, all of them will get other allowances under categories such as assembly sitting and travel among others, besides other non-cash benefits.

For an ex-MLA, the government announced a pension of ₹40,000 per month compared to ₹30,000 along with a hike in medical allowances to ₹20,000 from ₹12,000.

Besides, the Act also said, “The widow/widower of any ex-member shall be paid family pension at the rate of 50% of the pension amount drawn by the ex-member and shall also be paid medical allowance at the rate of ₹20,000 per mensem.”