MPs monthly allowances to increase by Rs40,000

New Delhi: The monthly allowances of members of parliament (MPs) are all set to increase by Rs40,000 per month, with the union cabinet on Wednesday approving up to 55% hike.

At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the cabinet approved the amendment to allowance rules effective from 1 April, which will have additional financial implication of more than Rs39 crore and Rs6.64 crore on account of recurring and non-recurring expenditures respectively.

Now MPs will be paid to Rs70,000 per month as constituency allowance instead of Rs45,000 per month at present. Similarly, office expenses allowance has also been increased to Rs60,000 from Rs45,000, the parliamentary affairs ministry said in an statement.

Besides these two allowances, the furniture allowance which is being paid to the parliamentarians once in five years, is also increased to Rs1 lakh from Rs75,000.

All the allowances will automatically increase after every five years starting from 1 April 2023 on the basis of cost inflation index.

The decision of the cabinet will be conveyed to Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament for making amendments in the relevant rules. It will be approved and confirmed by the Chairman and the Speaker and will be published in the Official Gazette, the ministry said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had already announced in his budget speech that a permanent mechanism would be set up to revise the salaries of MPs every five years, and it would be linked to inflation.

The basic pay of the parliamentarians is also set to be doubled to Rs1 lakh, effective from 1 April. As of today, excluding the Speaker, the Lok Sabha has 536 MPs, including two nominated from the Anglo-Indian community. There are eight vacancies. The Rajya Sabha has 239 members.