The revised salaries of MPs are significantly lower than the salaries drawn by top bureaucrats in the country.
The Union government on March 28, 2025 notified a 24 per cent rise in the salaries of members of Parliament with retrospective effect from April 1, 2023.
With this, MPs would earn Rs 1.24 lakh per month as their salary compared to the Rs 1 lakh they received since 2018.
The decision to adjust the salaries of MPs every five years, based on the cost inflation index, was taken for the first time in 2018.
In that same year, their salaries doubled from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
The state governments, too, followed suit. Recently, the Karnataka government passed two mills, doubling the salaries of its members of the legislative assembly.
The Gujarat government has also agreed to increase the salaries of MLAs.
The Delhi assembly has formed a five-member committee to review the salaries and allowances of its legislators.
A state-wise analysis of MLA salaries reveals a pay disparity across states. Jharkhand MLAs earned the highest: Rs 2.88 lakh per month while the per capita income of Jharkhand stood roughly around Rs 9,000.
This means that Jharkhand's MLAs earn more than 32 times the per capita income of Jharkhand.
Telangana MLAs had a salary of Rs 2.5 lakh per month, which included a basic-salary of Rs 20,000, and a constituency allowance of Rs 2.3 lakh.
MLAs of Uttar Pradesh earned Rs 95,000 per month 12 times the per capita income of the state (in 2023-2024).
With a salary of Rs 70,000 per month, Kerala is one of the lowest payers. This was three times the per capita income of the state.
But Delhi has the least MLA's salary to per capita income ratio among the 12 states studied.
However, even the revised salaries of MPs are significantly lower than the salaries drawn by the top bureaucrats in the country.
The Cabinet secretary earns a basic salary of Rs 2.5 lakh per month while the foreign secretary and director-general of police have a basic salary of Rs 2.25 lakh.
The election commissioner and the comptroller and auditor general of India earned Rs 2.5 lakh per month, which is equivalent to the salary of a Supreme Court judge.
Meanwhile, India s per capita income languishes at Rs 17,132 per month in 2024-2025.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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