The Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha today passed the Salaries and Allowances of Ministers (Himachal Pradesh) Amendment Bill, 2003. The amendment was to hike salaries of the Chief Minister and Ministers. The clauses of the Bill, when enacted, will entail additional recurring expenditure of about Rs 40 lakh per annum.According to the Bill, the salary of Chief Minister and Cabinet Minister will be Rs 18,000 and Rs 15,000 per month. The salary of Minister of State and Deputy Minister will be Rs 11,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively.Each Minister will be entitled to compensatory allowance of Rs 5,000 per month. Besides, they will get an allowance for each day during the whole of the term at the same rate.The Bill provides Rs 7,000 per month per Minister as telephone allowance. The House also passed the HP Legislative Assembly Speaker’s and Deputy Speaker’s Salaries (Amendment) Bill, 2003, and the HP Legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pension of Members) Amendment Bill, 2003. According to the Bill relating to Speaker’s and Deputy Speaker’s salaries, the Speaker will get Rs 15,000 per month. Besides, he will be entitled to compensatory allowance of Rs 5,000 per month. The Deputy Speaker will get a salary of Rs 11,000 per month and compensatory allowance of Rs 5,000 per month.
