Indian MPs hike own salaries by 24% to earn INR 1.24 lakh/month

That's over 8 times average Indian's salary of INR 15,000!

- BY S VENKAT NARAYAN

The Indian Government has approved a hefty 24% hike in the pay packets and pensions of Members of Parliament (MPs), with retrospective effect from 1 April 2023.

The revision, carried out under the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act, 1954, is linked to the Cost Inflation Index specified in the Income Tax Act, 1961.

With this increase, MPs' monthly salary rises from INR 1 lakh per month to INR 1.24 lakh, while their daily allowance increases by 25% from INR 2,000 to INR 2,500, as per a Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs notification issued on Monday.

The pension for former MPs has also been revised upward by 24%, from INR 25,000 to INR 31,000 per month.

This is the first such revision since April 2018, aimed at bringing earnings in line with inflation, as per the notification. However, the hike raises fresh questions about the income disparity between lawmakers and the general population.