Bills to double salaries of president, PM, ministers placed in JS

Three separate bills were placed in the parliament today in an amended form to double salaries and other allowances of the president, prime minister and cabinet members.

Agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury, also in-charge of the cabinet division in parliament, placed the bills styled The President’s (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill 2016, The Prime Minister (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill 2016 and The Ministers, Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill 2016 before the House.

As per the proposal, the government proposes Tk 1.20 lakh for the president, Tk 1.15 lakh for the prime minister and Tk 1.5 lakh for ministers, Tk 92 thousands for state ministers and Tk 86,500 for deputy minsters.

At present, the president draws Tk 61200, the PM Tk 58,600, a minister Tk 53,100, a state minister Tk 47,800 and a deputy minister draws Tk 45,150.

Besides, there are other allowances, including daily allowance and conveyance which will also be increased.

While placing the bills, the minister said it is necessary to revise the salaries and benefits of the president, prime minister, ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers considering the socio-economic situation.

The House, with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair, sent the bills to the parliamentary standing committee concerned, asking the body to return those by seven days.

Earlier on Sunday, Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Allowances) (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was placed in the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) in an amended form, where salaries and other allowances of the lawmakers were made almost double.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Haque placed the bill with the proposal for raising the salaries and other benefits according to the eight pay scales for the government employees. The cabinet endorsed the draft bill on September 7, 2015.

The draft bill said the salary of each MP will be Taka 55,000 instead of Taka 27,500, expenditure allowances were raised from Tk 3,000 to Tk 5,000, daily allowance to Taka 7,50 from 300, discretionary fund as Taka 5,00,000 from Tk 3,00,000, monthly expenses in the electoral areas to Tk 12,500 from existing Tk 7,500, transport allowance (monthly) Tk 70,000 from Tk 40,000, internal travel allowance (annually) Tk 1,20,000 from Tk 75,000, monthly laundry allowance Tk 15,000 from 1,000 and the allowances for cookeries and others were hiked to Tk 6,000 from Tk 4,000.

The salaries and other allowances and facilities were fixed according to the Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Allowances) Order, 1973, the minister told the House saying that the salaries would be effective from July 1, 2015 and the allowances from July 1, 2016.