Budget 2018: Salary hikes bring cheer

New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced a salary hike for the President and the Vice President in the Union Budget and both dignitaries will now get Rs 5 lakh and Rs 4 lakh per month respectively.

The moment Mr Jaitley announced the hike, several lawmakers present in Lok Sabha started getting noisy, sensing their mood and with a knowing smile on his face, the finance minister proposed a law for an automatic revision of salaries for Parliamentarians every five years indexed to inflation.

Meanwhile, announcing the hike in salaries of President and Vice President, Mr Jaitley said in his Budget speech that the emoluments of the President, the Vice President and the Governors were last revised with effect from January 1, 2006.

“These emoluments are proposed to be revised to Rs 5 lakh for the President, Rs 4 lakh for the Vice President and to Rs 3.5 lakh per month for the governors,” he said, amidst thumping of desks by the members in the Lok Sabha. As of now, the President gets Rs 1.50 lakh per month, the Vice President Rs 1.25 lakh and a governor of a state Rs 1.10 lakh.

Till now, the President, the Vice President and the governors continued to get less salaries as compared to the top bureaucrats and service chiefs since the laws were not amended to rectify an anomaly with the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations two years ago.

After the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s awards on January 1, 2016, the Cabinet Secretary, who is the top-most bureaucrat in the country, gets Rs 2.5 lakh per month and a secretary in the Union government draws Rs 2.25 lakh per month.

The President is also the supreme commander of all the three armed forces — the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

However, the President’s current salary was less than the chiefs of the three armed forces, who draw a salary equivalent to the cabinet secretary.

On the emoluments for MPs, the finance minister 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 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.

Mr Jaitley added the law would also provide for automatic revision of emoluments every five years indexed to inflation and members would welcome this initiative and “not suffer such criticism in the future”.