Tripura Assembly tables Bill proposing major hike in salaries, pensions for Ministers, MLAs

Agartala, Jan. 11: A bill proposing a bumper hike in salaries, pensions, and other benefits of Ministers and MLAs had been tabled in the state assembly on Friday–on the beginning of the sixth session of the 13th assembly.

The bill proposes an extensive hike in salaries, pension, and other allowances that the MLAs and Ministers enjoy. In addition, the minimum obligation of serving minimum four and half years to get entitled for the pension has also been removed.

Titled as “The Salaries, Allowances, Pension and Other Benefits of the Ministers, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Leader of Opposition, Government Chief Whip and Other Members of the Legislative Assembly (Tripura) (Ninth Amendment), Bill, 2024,” the bill proposed raise in allowances in all major heads.

As per the draft of the Bill, the Chief Minister will now be entitled to draw a salary of Rs 97,000 while the Deputy Chief Minister will get Rs 96,000.

The other ministers, Speaker, Leader of Opposition, Government Chief Whip will draw a salary of Rs 95,000.

The Deputy Speaker’s salary is one thousand less than that of the Ministers and Speaker and an MLA is entitled to a salary of Rs 93,000.

The sumptuary allowance for Chief Minister is Rs 13,000 and others who are entitled to the allowance would receive Rs 12,000.

Compared to the first major increment of salaries, pensions and other allowances of the MLAs and Ministers that came into effect in 2019 after the BJP government came to power, the benefits and entitlements had almost doubled. As per the 2019 Bill, the salary of Chief Minister was Rs 53,630, the salary of Deputy Chief Minister was Rs 52,630. The salaries of the Ministers, Speakers and Leader of Opposition were similar—Rs 51,780. Chief Whip used to get Rs 50,510 and MLA’s salary was Rs 48,420.

In between several amendments proposing minor changes in the act had been proposed and passed in the state assembly.

The amendment of Section 5 proposed that the conveyance allowance of the Ministers, Speaker, Leader of Opposition and Government Chief Whip will be increased from Rs 4,310 to Rs 7,000. Those who have their own vehicles, they would be entitled to Rs 5,200 which is increased from Rs 3,250. The conveyance allowance of MLAs had been increased to Rs 16,000 from Rs 9,500.

Similarly Travelling Allowance and Dearness Allowance for the MLAs also proposed to be increased. The travelling allowance had been proposed to be raised to Rs 35 per kilometer from Rs 24 per kilometer. The DA for a member is proposed to be Rs 1,100 in place of Rs 7,000 inside Tripura and outside the state the proposal for hike stands at Rs 1,500 from Rs 900.

In another modification, all Ministers will now get a constituency allowance of Rs 21,000. According to the statement of the parliamentary affairs Minister attached with the Bill, “Section 10 of the Act provides for Constituency Allowance only for the members, not the Ministers, Speaker, Leader of Opposition and Government Chief Whip. But, these excluded functionaries are also the members of the respective assembly constituencies and they are being deprived of this allowance due to such exclusions. It is so proposed to remove such exclusion by way of inclusion of those functionaries in the said provision.”

The pension for ex-MLAs is also proposed to be almost doubled from Rs 34,500 to 66,000 and the obligation of “a period not less than four years and six months whether continuous or not” has been substituted by “any period”. The pension comes under section 17 of the Act.

The family pension is also hiked from Rs 25,000 to Rs 48,000. The special allowance for ex-Chief Ministers was also increased from Rs 2,880 to Rs 6,000.

Justifying the amendments, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Ratan Lal Nath in his statement said, “Upward modification of the salaries, allowances, pensions and other financial benefits of the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and other Minister, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Leader of Opposition, Government Chief Whip and Members of the Legislative Assembly was last done in the year 2019 by the Fifth Amendment Act, 2019. During this time, the price index has increased and it is inevitable to substantially enhance the pay structure of these functionaries by further amendment of the Act.”

The Financial Memorandum attached with the Bill further stated: “The Bill, if enacted and brought into operation, shall involve an additional expenditure of Rs Eleven crore approximately from the consolidated fund of the state”.