Salaries of Speaker, Deputy Speaker and MPs to double

With the proposal for increasing salary and other related benefits of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad to almost double, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was placed in the parliament today.

On the other hand, Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Allowances) (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was also placed in the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) today 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 two separate bills with the proposal for raising the salary and other benefits in line with the eight pay scales for the government employees.

According to the draft in an amended form, the salary of Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) will be Taka 1,12,000 instead of Taka 57,200 and the salary of Deputy Speaker will be raised to Tk 1,05,000 from Tk 53,100.

Besides, expenditure allowances, house allowances in case of private houses, insurance coverage, travel allowances, daily allowances and discretionary fund and other allowances of those concerned have also been proposed to increase.

The salary and other benefits including, bonus and allowances were fixed earlier as per the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker (Remuneration and Privileges) Act, 1974.

On September 7 in 2015, the cabinet approved the draft of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill, 2016 saying that the salaries would be effective from July 1, 2015 and the allowances from July 1, 2016.

Meanwhile, 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. The cabinet endorsed the draft bill on September 7, 2015.

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury chaired the House. Later the bills were sent to the concerned parliamentary standing committees for scrutiny and asked to report back by seven days.

With inputs from BSS