When dolts like us wait for appraisals to get industry standard raise, the Members of Parliament can soon receive a 100 percent raise. The Prime Minister’s Office seems to have agreed to restructure the Indian MP salary, including a recommendation of 75 percent rise in pensions.
Here’s the details of an Indian MP salary (per month) and other allowances.
Salary per month – Rs. 50,000
Constituency allowance – Rs. 45,000
Office expenses – Rs. 15,000
Secretarial assistance – Rs. 30,000
Daily allowance when Parliament is in session – Rs. 2,000
Trip reimbursements – 34 trips on air and unlimited rail and road trip every year for official business. This goes without saying, the travels are on first class. Spouses of an MP can travel free for eight times a year by flight from their residence to New Delhi, when Parliament is in session. They can also travel for unlimited times by rail.
Other perks – Free housing, petrol, 50,000 units of free electricity, telephone and medical treatment.
Pension – Rs. 20,000 per month. If an MP serves for more than five years, the pension amount increases by Rs. 1,500 every additional year of service.
Icing on the cake is, an Indian MP salary is tax free. They get a furnished bungalow, with air conditioner, refrigerator and TVs – all for free. Maintenance of the house, including the expense of maintaining furniture and upholstery is done free of cost by the Government. MPs can have three telephone lines and 1,70,000 free calls every year. When flying abroad for official work, MPs are entitled for business class tickets, including daily travelling allowance.
All in all, the MP’s official monthly package works out to be almost Rs. 2,00,000 a month.
In connection to the recommendation of increasing Indian MP salary, Samajwadi party leader Ramgopal Yadav said last August, “MPs’ salary is lowest of all. Our salary is lesser than MLAs of Delhi government, half of what a Maharashtra MLA gets, and a third of that of Telangana MLAs.”