MLAs salary to be raised to Rs. 40,250

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Justice Rajendrababu Commission, appointed by the government to submit a report on enhancing the monthly salary and allowances of MLAs, has recommended a sharp increase of Rs. 40,250 from Rs.20,300.As per the recommendations, the fixed monthly salary will go up from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 and the fixed monthly allowance from Rs 300 to Rs 8,500. The Constituency allowance will be increased from the existing Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,500. In view of the importance of communication, the existing telephone allowance of Rs 5,000 per month will be increased to Rs 6,500.The Commission has proposed four new monthly allowances for the legislators. As per the proposal, there will be a sumptuary allowance of Rs 1,500, driver’s allowance of Rs 6,250, Information allowance of Rs 1,000 and Secretarial allowance of Rs 7,500. Minimum monthly TA of Rs 10,000 has been retained in the new proposal. The annual road travel allowance of Rs 1.2 lakh has been increased to Rs 1.44 lakh. Besides the fixed monthly emoluments of Rs 40,250, MLAs will get Rs 5 lakh as interest-free car loan or at nominal interest. MLAs having no house of their own may be given housing loan up to Rs 10 lakh at concessional rate of interest. The existing rate of incidental expenses of 25 paise per km during rail journey  will be increased to 50 paise per km. The fuel expense for road journey will be increased from Rs 6 per km to Rs 7 per km. Speaker G Karthikeyan told mediapersons that the proposals in the report would be passed in the ongoing Assembly session.