Kathmandu, November 20

The Legislature Parliament today passed a bill on pay and perks of Parliament members, office bearers of parliamentary parties of the ruling party, main opposition and the Parliament.

A majority vote passed the bill by incorporating the amendment proposal tabled by the three major parties Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre with more increment than proposed in the original bill introduced by the government a few days ago.

Every Parliament member will get monthly salary of around Rs 80,000 under different heads and some additional facilities, according to the newly passed bill. Additionally they will get Rs 1,000 as meeting allowance for every House meeting, Rs 1,000 as transportation fare for every meeting and Rs 2,500 as daily travel allowance for official travel.

Every Parliament member will get the additional facility of personal secretary, with salary equal to that of a government officer. Another additional facility includes Rs 50,000 as furniture expense for one time after being elected as Parliament member.

Altogether the state will have to spend more than Rs 1 lakh every month on each Parliament member.

The amount is more for office bearers, including Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Chair and Vice Chair of the National Assembly, leaders of ruling party and main opposition party, chief whips and whips of the ruling and opposition parties.

Additionally, every member will get travel insurance facility of Rs 2 million. If a member passes away, his/her family will get Rs 5 lakh. If a member is disabled, s/he will get Rs 2 lakh for one time for one tenure.

On behalf of the proposers of the amendment proposal, Nepali Congress Chief Whip Chin Kaji Shrestha said the increment was proposed keeping the genuine concerns of the majority of Parliament members. “If any one chooses not to take the facility, s/he is free to do that.

However, the review was made to address the current poor arrangement for lawmakers’ daily expenses,” Shrestha said.

Speaking on the bill, some lawmakers had said that the increment was necessary as the current pay and perks were insufficient to address the problem of inflation.