Even as the government of India is working on a steep pay hike for Members of Parliament to give them a monthly package of INR 280,000, Sri Lanka is considering a proposal to massively increase the Daily Sitting Allowance given to its MPs.
“Lankan MPs are the lowest paid in the region,” said Lakshman Kiriella, the Leader of the House, rebutting media criticism about the plan to sharply hike the Daily Sitting Allowance from LKR 500 to LKR 20,000.
With parliament sitting for eight days every month, an MP who attends all eight days, will get a total of LKR 160,000 as Sitting Allowance per month.
But Suresh Premachandran, a former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, said that this does not answer the MPs’ needs.
“The hike in the Daily Sitting Allowance presumes that the MPs’ main task is to attend parliament sessions. But the fact of the matter is that an MP’s work is mostly done outside parliament in his electoral district. He has to travel incessantly, meet and entertain his constituents; attend their marriages and funerals and, if they are poor, defray a part of the expenses,” Premachandran pointed out.
“The MP cannot meet these legitimate expenses from his present monthly income, unless he is in business,” the TNA veteran added.
A Lankan MP’s monthly salary is LKR 54,000. Besides that, he gets allowances to meet his diesel, office and secretarial expenses, apart from the Sitting Allowance. Putting all that together, an MP’s total emoluments may range between LKR 110,000 and LKR 120,000. However, with all the cuts, the take-home will not be more than LKR 90,000.
“With that kind of income, MPs will have to go in for an overdraft every month,” Premachandran remarked.
He further said that besides increasing the overall monthly pay packet and allowances, government should de-link MPs’ pay from the scales applicable to other categories of State officials.
“ The peculiar demands of the MPs’ job will have to be the main consideration in fixing their pay,” Premachandran said.
Source: The New Indian Express
-Agencies
