MP salaries ‘ridiculously inadequate’, hypocritical to criticise the hike, says Shashi Tharoor

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday said that salaries of MPs are “ridiculously inadequate” and that it is impossible to make ends meet with the present salary structure. The central government proposed to double the salary for MPs and an automatic increase every five years.
“MP salaries are ridiculously inadequate. It would be hypocritical to criticize a salary increase unless you can come up with a formula for doing all that an MP is expected to do within this amount,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said in a detailed Facebook post.
The Union government’s move to double the salary for MPs has come in for criticism from some quarters, with Trinamool Congress becoming the first party to criticise the proposal, saying that the lawmakers are “getting enough”.
“To all the well-meaning people out there expressing outrage that MP salaries may be raised: An MP earns 50,000 rupees, plus a constituency allowance of 30,000 rupees, of which s/he is expected to maintain a residence in both Delhi and her/his constituency, maintain office and employ staff in both places, run a vehicle in both places (considering that no fuel expense is reimbursed), pay electricity (free electricity up to certain units is only provided at the official residence in Delhi) and phone bills in both places (apart from the limited complementary calls), offer refreshments to visitors in both places, maintain himself and her/his family,” he stated.
“It is impossible to make ends meet without a supplementary income or some source of corruption. Don’t point to free air tickets: they are used for travel to and from the constituency and cannot be monetised to cover actual expenses,” Tharoor added.
On Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while presenting his last full budget before Lok Sabha elections, moved to end the practice of MPs arrogating salary rises to themselves and proposed a law to standardise the salary and provide for an automatic revision every five years by indexing it to inflation. Accordingly, MPs will now draw a basic salary of Rs 1,00,000 (up from Rs 50,000).
“There has been a public debate with regard to the emoluments paid to the Members of Parliament. Present practice allows the recipients to fix their own emoluments which invites criticism. I am, therefore, proposing necessary changes to refix the salary, constituency allowance, office expenses and meeting allowance payable to Members of Parliament with effect from April 1, 2018,” Jaitley had said.