Gujarat’s MLA – neighbour’s envy?

If you are a Member of the Legislative Assembly or an MLA of Gujarat, you’re certainly an object of envy for your colleagues in many other states. The Gujarat MLA is relatively well paid with a monthly salary of Rs 21,000 (excluding perks). This is considerably higher than their counterpart in most other states. In addition, they get a daily allowance (for attending the assembly or committee meetings in the State) of Rs 200.

According to the data compiled by PRS Legislative Research for 17 states (Gujarat, Nagaland, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Rajasthan, Orissa, Sikkim, Punjab, West Bengal, Delhi, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, Chattisgarh, Kerala, Haryana), an MLA in Gujarat is the best paid (among these 17 states) but receives one of the least daily allowances. Meanwhile, the Haryana MLA does not receive any monthly salary but is perhaps compensated with the highest daily allowance of Rs 1000.

MLAs in Nagaland, are the next best salaried at Rs10,000 and daily allowance at Rs500. States like Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim and West Bengal though do not seem to have the concept of daily allowances.

While Madhya Pradesh pays its MLAs Rs9,000 a month, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh pay Rs 8,000 p.m.; Goa, Rajasthan and Orissa pay Rs 5000; Sikkim and Punjab Rs 4000; West Bengal, Delhi and Meghalaya Rs 3000; Tamil Nadu Rs 2000 and Chhattisgarh Rs 1500.

In Kerala, MLAs are one of the least paid at a month salary of just Rs300 and a daily allowance of Rs400.

However, while the monthly salaries might seem a bit meager, this is not the only remuneration given to an MLA. In addition to the monthly salary and daily allowance, MLAs also get allowances to cover travel, office and communication expenses etc. and free or subsidized housing. Hence, the total monthly salary figure for each MLA, including all perks, goes much higher. For instance in Gujarat, with effect from April 2009, a new pay scale for MLAs was introduced bringing salaries at par with those of Class I officers, which made an MLA’s salary (including all perks) a little more than Rs 40,000 a month. Or for instance, for an MLA in Meghalaya, the figure including perks becomes Rs 20,000 per month.

There is no uniformity of salaries for MLAs across the country because each state has a separate Payment of Salaries Act, which sets rules regarding salaries, perks, pensions etc of MLAs. Hence, the salary amount, structure, nature of perks etc differ across states, given that they are determined according to the individual discretion of each state legislature.

Meanwhile, a variety of factors are taken into account while MLA salaries are altered or raised. State assemblies tend to keep in mind the possibility of public criticism when salaries are being increased. Thus, while in the private sector, remuneration might be revised every year, for MLA’s, it usually happens once in 4-5 years.

A separate law governs the salary of the speaker of each state assembly. While the monthly salary is usually not very different from that of other MLAs, the speaker is entitled to more perks.

Coming back to Gujarat, it is said that an MLA there – Mahendrabhai Liladharbhai Mashru from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – does not accept any remuneration, since he “does not believe in taking money for public work.”