Gandhinagar, Sep 19 (IANS): The Gujarat Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill proposing to hike the salaries of legislators, Ministers, Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Leader of Opposition by at least Rs 45,000 a month.

The monthly salary of the MLAs will be increased to Rs 1.16 lakh from the existing Rs 70,727, a rise of about 64 per cent, while those of the Ministers, Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Leader of Opposition will go up to Rs 1.32 lakh from Rs 86,000, an increase of about 54 per cent.

The revised salaries will come into retrospective effect from February 2017, with a disbursal of Rs 6 crore in arrears. The new remuneration structure will put an extra burden of Rs 10 crore annually on the state exchequer.

The Salaries and Allowances of Members, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly, Ministers and Leader of Opposition Laws (Amendment) Bill 2018 was introduced in the House by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Pradeepsinh Jadeja.

After tabling the bill, Jadeja informed the House that the salary of the MLAs in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly had not been revised since 2005 while the remuneration of their counterparts in other states was comparatively much higher.

For instance, the salaries of legislators in states like Uttarakhand, Telangana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra were Rs 2.91 lakh, Rs 2.50 lakh, Rs 2.25 lakh and Rs 2.13 lakh respectively.

It was only in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Odisha that the salaries of lawmakers was just over Rs 1 lakh, comparable to the remuneration the Gujarat MLAs will now get.