Rs 5 lakh Prez pay: Cabinet sits on MHA's proposal

New Delhi: Nearly a year after the Union home ministry forwarded a proposal for increasing the salary of the President and vice-president, the two continue to draw less monthly salary than top bureaucrats and service chiefs as the move to amend the law to address the anomaly is yet to be finalised by the Cabinet.

The anomaly is largely on account of implementation of the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission last year for the bureaucrats that took their salaries above that of the first citizen and his deputy.

The home ministry had forwarded a proposal to the Cabinet Secretariat more than a year ago to increase salaries of the President, vice-president and governors for consideration of the Union Cabinet but no final decision has been taken on it so far.

As of now, the President gets Rs 1.50 lakh every month while the vice-pre-sident gets Rs 1.25 lakh and a governor Rs 1.10 lakh.

Following the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission on January 1, 2016, the Cabinet Secretary, who is the seniormost bureaucrat at the Centre, draws nearly Rs 2.5 lakh per month while a secretary to the government gets Rs 2.25 lakh every month.

Even though the President also happens to be the supreme commander of the three armed forces — Army, Air Force and the Navy — his salary is less than the service chiefs, who are almost on par with the Cabinet Secretary.

Once the Cabinet clears the proposal to increase the salary of the President, vice-president and governors, a revised Bill will be tabled in Parliament for its approval.

As per the home ministry proposal, the President’s monthly salary may increase to Rs 5 lakh while that of the vice-president may go up to Rs 3.5 lakh and that of governors will increase to Rs 3 lakh.

Their salaries were last revised in 2008 when the Parliament had cleared a three-fold increase. Till 2008, the President’s salary was Rs 50,000 while that of vice-president was Rs 40,000 and of governors was Rs 36,000 per month.