This is according to a report published by PRS Legislative Research.
New Delhi: The reduction of salaries of Members of Parliament (MPs) and that of several MLAs by the state legislative Assemblies is unlikely to give a significant boost to the amount of money required to fight the Covid 19 pandemic, according to a report published by PRS Legislative Research.
The report says that the 30% reduction in the salaries of MPs in India would have a positive impact of just 0.03% on the funds required to fight Covid-19. The reduction of salaries of the MPs would give additional funds of just Rs 55 crore to the Central government.
The PRS report says that the suspension of the MPLADS funds, primarily given to MPs for local developmental works, would have a positive impact of 4.5% on the total finances required to fight Covid-19 pandemic, as this would give the government additional funds of Rs 7,800 crore.
Each MP is allocated Rs 5 crore under the MPLADS scheme and this fund has been suspended for two years. Taking a cue from the Central government, several states have also reduced salaries of their MLAs.
Five states—Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh—have slashed salaries of their MLAs by 30%, while Bihar has slashed it by 15% for a period of one year, starting April this year. By means of reduction of salaries, these respective state governments are likely to save 0.001% to 0.009% of their finances as per the budget estimates, according to PRS Legislative Research.
The least among them would be saved by Bihar, which is looking at saving 0.001% from their total budget estimates, while Himachal Pradesh, the highest with 0.009% of their budget estimates. “The total saving per year across these states, ranges from around Rs 2.1 crore in Bihar to Rs 17.4 crore in Uttar Pradesh. This shows that such measures to decrease MLAs’ salaries and allowances toward increasing the pool of funds for fighting the pandemic are likely to have an almost negligible impact for the state’s finances,” the PRS in its report stated.
In India, the salary of MPs is decided by the Parliament, but in countries like Australia and New Zealand, the salaries of public representatives are decided by Remuneration Tribunal which is revised annually.
Countries like the United Kingdom decide the salaries of public representatives by an Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority as per the changes in average earnings in the public sector given by the Office for National Statistics.