Bangalore, 22/2: The Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday passed a Bill giving the chief minister, ministers, lawmakers and others a fat hike in their monthly salary, citing “considerable increase in the cost of living”.
The Karnataka Ministers Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill and the Karnataka Legislature Salaries, Pensions and Allowances (Amendment) Bill were passed without any discussion.
The Bill proposes a 60 per cent hike in monthly salaries to all lawmakers (MLAs and MLCs) from Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000.
The chief minister will see his salary go from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000. Ministers will get Rs 60,000 as against the existing Rs 40,000.
The Legislative Assembly Speaker and Legislative Council chairperson will also get a 50 per cent jump from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000. The monthly salary of the Leaders of the Opposition goes up from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000.
Sumptuary allowance for the chief minister, ministers, Speaker and the Council chairperson will go up from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh.
Piloting the Bills on behalf of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Law Minister J C Madhuswamy said salaries and allowances were last revised in 2015. “We know how diesel and petrol rates have gone up. Rents also have gone up,” he said.
Madhuswamy said the government took a leaf from the Centre’s book to introduce a clause in the Bills to automatically revise salaries once every five years based on the cost of living indices. “We won’t table such Bills going forward,” he said.
The hikes will result in a recurring, additional expenditure of approximately Rs 92.4 crore every year.
House rent allowance for all ministers will go up from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1.2 lakh per month. They will also get a house maintenance allowance of Rs 30,000 per month.
Ministers’ fuel expenses will be paid by the government up to 2,000 litres, up from 1,000 litres. Their tour allowance per day has been hiked to Rs 2,500 per day.
All lawmakers will get Rs 60,000 every month as constituency travelling allowance. They will also get a pension of Rs 50,000 per month.
Every lawmaker will get Rs 2.5 lakh payable in two instalments – April and October – for “travelling either single or with a companion in one or more journeys by air or by any class or by any railway in India,” according to the Bill.
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