Committee passes hiking MP salaries to MVR 100,000

The Public Accounts Committee has approved a resolution on increasing the salaries of parliament MPs to MVR 100,000 per month.

The committee held discussions on designating remuneration for lawmakers on Tuesday, December 19. Members of the committee initially agreed for a monthly remuneration of MVR 82,000 for MPs, which entails a basic salary of MVR 57,000 and living allowance.

Following off-the-record discussions among the committee members, they agreed on a basic salary of MVR 55,000, bringing the total take-home pay to MVR 80,000 per month.

With this change, members in various parliament committees would receive committee allowance according to the existing policies, said the Committee's chair.

Members in parliament committees receive an allowance of MVR 20,000. With this, any parliament MP holding a position in one of the committees would receive a monthly take home pay of MVR 100,000.

In the ongoing discussions on hiking the MP salaries, some members have even suggested to make the revised remuneration effective at the beginning of the 20th parliamentary session.

Fonadhoo MP Moosa Siraj suggested against increasing the remuneration for the remaining six months before the term concluded. He argued that increasing the salary right now would set off a bad practice in the parliament.

Hanimaadhoo MP Abdul Ghafoor Moosa, who contested this, said the decision for a remuneration hike would be effective for the upcoming session's MPs, as the current session was close to winding up.

"There's talk that members do not want a remuneration bump [during the current session], which is not true, since even they wish for a salary hike," the MP said.

He further argued that the salary increment was not specific to certain MPs but inclusive of all.

Previously, parliament MPs were entitled to a monthly salary of MVR 80,000 inclusive of committee allowances.