New Delhi: Much hue and cry and a 300 per cent hike later, MPs in the world's largest democracy will take home every month salaries a little more than a day's pay of a US parliamentarian.
If compared with legislators from the developed world, our MPs may appear to be poorly paid. But all is not as it seems.
Though a monthly pay packet of Rs 1.6 lakh might not be enough for Indian MPs, the perks they get can easily dwarf their salaries. After Monday's increase, the MPs will get a basic pay of Rs 50,000, daily allowance of Rs 2,000, constituency allowance of Rs 45,000 and office allowance of Rs 45,000 every month.
This does not include a bungalow in Lutyens' Delhi and other perks such as free air and rail travel. Each MP is entitled to 34 free air journeys to anywhere in India every year that approximately cost Rs 5 lakh, along with unlimited free rail travel. All MPs get free housing if they live in flats and pay a nominal rent for bungalows in Lutyens' zone.
MPs can also use up to 50,000 units of free power worth Rs 1,80,000 per month and 4,000 kilolitres of water worth Rs 40,000. They can also claim road mileage at the rate of Rs 16 per km for travel from their residences in Delhi and their constituencies to the airport. MPs also get a pension for life without any provision regarding years of service.
It would, however, be illogical to make comparisons with payments made to legislators in other countries because one has to take into account the real value of respective currencies and the per capita income of citizens in those countries.
But if we do calculate the overall cost of an MP to his or her country by finding out the approximate monetary values of various perks and allowances and convert that into international dollars in terms of purchasing power parity or PPP, it turns out that Indian MPs cost more to the country than their counterparts in Singapore, Japan and Italy.
Each MP's pay and perks are 2.2 lakh PPP dollars, which is higher than the salary and perks of MPs in Singapore (2.1 lakh), Japan (1.9 lakh) and Italy (1.9 lakh). The cost to country of a Pakistani MP (46,000 PPP dollars) makes Indian legislators look well off!
Another approach to our MP's pay packets is by comparing them with the people they represent. India's per capita GDP being $ 3,176 (PPP), post-hike MPs will cost the country 68 times more than what an average Indian earns annually.
The disparity between an Indian citizen's average income and an MP's cost to country is among the highest in the world. The ratio is 35 for the US while for most of western Europe and Japan, the cost of an MP doesn't exceed 10 times the country's per capita income.
Comparative salary (in rupees) of MPs from some developed countries and India.
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