The salaries of the President of India, Vice President of India and Governors of States have been hiked by over 200 per cent while a law will be brought to automatically revise salaries of Members of Parliament every five years depending on the inflation index.
This highlight from the Budget presentation of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday received a thumping support from the Parliamentarians. As regards the anti-corruption body lokpal which is yet to be set up, the Budget kept the allocation at Rs 4.29 crore. However, the outlay for the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) got an increase of Rs 1.5 crore in the next fiscal. Under the proposed Budget, President of India will get a monthly salary of Rs 5 lakh, Vice President Rs 4 lakh and Governors will get Rs 3.5 lakh.
It was an anomaly that the Centre wished to set right as the salary of President, who is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, was below that of the Chief of Army, Navy and Air Force following the introduction of the Seventh Pay Commission. The monthly emoluments of the President, Vice President and Governors was last revised as on January 1, 2006 and remained fixed at Rs 1.5 lakh for President, Rs 1.25 lakh for Vice President and Rs 1.10 lakh for Governor.
The 7th Pay Commission introduced as on January 1, 2016, raised the emoluments of the Cabinet Secretary, the top-most bureaucrat of the country, to Rs 2.5 lakh per month and of Secretary to Rs 2.25 lakh per month. The three service chiefs used to get pay equivalent to that of Cabinet Secretary.
After announcing the major salary hike, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley did not disappoint Parliamentarians who are often criticized of being the masters of their own cause when it came to raising salaries of MPs. Jaitley said there had been a public debate on emoluments paid to Members of Parliament and the present practice allowing them to fix their own emoluments had invited criticism.
“I am, therefore, proposing necessary changes to refix the salary, constituency allowance, office expenses and meeting allowance payable to Members of Parliament with effect from April 1, 2018,” he said. The law providing for automatic revision every five years will be indexed to inflation and with this, FM hoped that the issue will not suffer criticism in future.
The remuneration of an MP includes a basic salary of Rs 50,000 per month and Rs 45,000 as constituency allowance, apart from other perks. The Government spends roughly Rs 2.7 lakh on every MP per month. About Rs 295 crore has been earmarked for expenditure on salaries and travel by Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State and ex-Prime Ministers for the 2018-19 financial year, which is a reduction of 29 per cent from Rs 418 crore allocated for the ongoing fiscal.
The Budget also provided an outlay of Rs 295.81 crore for the Council of Ministers to meet expenditure on salaries, sumptuary and other allowances and travel by Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State and ex-Prime Ministers. “This also includes provision for maintenance of aircraft utilized for VVIP travel,” Jaitley said. A sum of Rs 5.22 crore has been allocated for expenditure on Government hospitality and entertainment of foreign State guests, official entertainment arranged at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on behalf of the Vice President and the Prime Minister, reception on national days, investiture and ceremonies for presentation of credentials, etc.