Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has decided today to raise the salary for the Chief Justice as it is currently lower than the salary received by the Speaker of Parliament. 

Raising the Chief Justice's salary was proposed in today's committee meeting by Funadhoo MP Mohamed Mamdhooh. He said that he was proposing this as the Chief Justice's current pay is less than that received by the Speaker. 

The Parliament Speaker previously received a monthly salary and allowances of MVR 73,000. This was increased to MVR 95,000 by the committee last week, citing that the previous amount was lower than that received by the Deputy Speaker and parliamentarians. 

The Chief Justice, meanwhile, currently has a take-home pay of MVR 91,000. MP Mamdhooh proposed introducing a special allowance of MVR 4,125 for the Chief Justice. With this, the total income per month of the Chief Justice will reach MVR 95,125, coming to be on par with the Speaker's monthly compensation. 

This change was approved through unanimous votes in favour from all MPs present in today's committee meeting. 

Citing pay harmonization, the Public Accounts Committee has previously increased cabinet ministers' car allowance as well. Previously, cabinet ministers received MVR 58,500 per month, including salary and allowances. The committee proposed including an additional MVR 17,000. This is broken down into MVR 2,000 as petrol allowance, MVR 12,000 as salary for the driver, and MVR 3,000 as a living allowance for the driver. 

With these changes, the total amount received in salary and allowances by ministers is MVR 75,000 per month.