The Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Friday passed a set of three amendment bills effectively increasing the salaries and allowances of the chief minister, Cabinet ministers, MLAs, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker by almost 24 per cent. However, several key allowances, including electricity and water, and telephone allowance, which alone was worth Rs 20,000, have been scrapped. Once it comes into effect, the new pay slab will put an additional burden of approximately Rs 24 crore on the state exchequer.
Introducing the amendment bills as part of the supplementary legislative agenda on the last day of the Budget session, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that considering the inflation, it was imperative that the salary of the public representatives was revised.
The bills introduced by Sukhu included the Ministers’ Salaries and Allowances (Himachal Pradesh) Amendment Bill, 2025, which revises the compensation structure for ministers by amending the Ministers’ Salaries and Allowances Act, 2000; the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Members’ Allowances and Pension) Amendment Bill, 2025, which modifies the 1971 Act governing MLAs’ pensions and allowances; and the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speaker and Deputy Speaker’s Salary (Amendment) Bill, 2025 , which too to tweaks the 1971 Act to revise the remuneration of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
“…it was necessary to amend the provisions governing the salaries, allowances and pensions of ministers, MLAs, Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Their pay structure was last amended in 2016. During the Covid-19 pandemic, pay…were reduced by almost 30 per cent,” Sukhu said.
The bills proposes a salary of Rs 1.15 lakh per month for the chief minister, up from Rs 95,000 he gets now. The salary of the cabinet minister will go up from Rs 80,000 to Rs 95,000. The salary of ministers of state and deputy ministers will get Rs 93,000 and Rs 80,000, respectively. The MLA’s salary also goes up from `50,000 to `70,000.
The hike, however, comes with a major trade-off with the government withdrawing Rs 20,000-telephone allowance and electricity and water bill allowances with immediate effect.