New Delhi: The Centre on Monday notified a 24 per cent hike in the salaries of members of Parliament with effect from April 1, 2023, on the basis of the Cost Inflation Index, taking their monthly salaries to ₹1.24 lakh besides certain allowances and perks. A notification issued by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs also increased the daily allowances for sitting members and pension and additional pension for every year of service in excess of five years for former members.

However, some parliamentarians appeared dissatisfied with the salary hike and instead sought an increase in the MP Local Area Development Fund (MPLADS).

A member of Parliament will now get ₹1.24 lakh per month as salary, ₹87,000 per month as constituency allowance as against ₹70,000 earlier and ₹75,000 towards office expenses as against ₹60,000 earlier. The office expenses of ₹75,000 include ₹50,000 to hire the services of a computer literate person and ₹25,000 towards stationery items.

The MPs are also entitled to purchase durable furniture worth ₹1 lakh and non-durable furniture of ₹25,000 once during their tenure. Earlier, these entitlements were capped at ₹80,000 for durable furniture and ₹20,000 for non-durable furniture.

The daily allowance too has been increased from ₹2,000 to ₹2,500, the notification said. MPs can draw daily allowances while attending Parliament sessions and meetings of parliamentary committees. The pension for former members of Parliament has been increased from ₹25,000 per month to ₹31,000 per month. The additional pension for every year of service in excess of five years has been increased from ₹2,000 per month to ₹2,500 per month.

The MPs get accommodation, varying from a hostel in Vitthalbhai Patel House to two-bedroom flats and bungalows in central Delhi. They are also reimbursed for electricity, water, telephone and internet charges. They and their families are also reimbursed for 34 one-way air tickets from their constituency to Delhi and get benefits on rail travel.

"This is a normal process which is conducted at a regular period. However, considering the inflation, I feel this is not enough," Samajwadi Party MP Anand Bhadauriya said.

Bharat Adivasi Party MP Raj Kumar Roat said, "I welcome the move to hike salaries of MPs. The MPs had demanded an increase in funds of MPLADS but the government has increased salaries of the MPs..."

BJP MP Malvika Devi said she was glad that the salaries have been increased but she would have been happier had the MPLADS been increased as well.

In 2018, the then finance minister Arun Jaitley increased the salaries of MPs from ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh. Jaitley also put a mechanism for automatic revision of salaries and allowances every five years by indexing it to inflation, thus doing away with the practice of MPs making recommendations for fixing their salaries.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government slashed salaries of MPs and ministers by 30 per cent for one year.

The increase in the salary has been notified in exercise of the powers granted under the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act on the basis of the Cost Inflation Index specified in the Income Tax Act of 1961.  

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