ProMASS News
Agartala, August 30, 2019: The State Government tabled several bills on the first day of State Assembly three-day monsoon session today. During today’s proceedings, Bills relating to Electricity Duty, Salaries and pension, prisoners, profession etc taxation, ESMA and Road transport were tabled in the House.
Beside ESMA and other Bills, the State Government also placed “The salaries, allowances, pension and other benefits of the Ministers, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Leader of Opposition, Government Chief Whip and members of the Legislative Assembly (Tripura) (Fifth Amendment) Bill 2019” today in the House.
According to proposed amendment, salary of the Chief Minister will be Rs 53,630 and that Deputy Chief Minister will be Rs 52,630 per month excluding allowances. Both Ministers’ salaries Speaker’s salary, Opposition leader and Government Chief Whip’s salary will be Rs 51,780 per month. Deputy Speaker’s salary was proposed to be Rs 50,510 while an MLA’s salary will be Rs 48,420 per month excluding allowances in all the cases.
The Bill, after being enacted, shall involve annual expenditure of Rs 5.84 crore approximately from the consolidated fund of the State and an amount of Rs 3.36 crore approx for the rest of Financial year, if given effect from September 1, 2019.
The Bill also proposed amendment relating to Pension and Family Pension, allowances and other benefits. The proposed Bill said, “Rs 17,250/- (Rupees Seventeen thousand two hundred fifty) shall be substituted with the expressions ‘Rs 34,500/- (Rupees thirty-four thousand five hundred)’ and the expression “a period of not less than (four years) whether ‘Continuous or not’ shall be substituted with the expression ‘any period’”. The Bill proposed to remove upper cap on pension amount ,which was Rs 21,505/-. In case of family pension, the Bill proposed Rs 25,000 instead of existing Rs 11,500/-.
Moreover, The State Government tabled The Tripura Electricity Duty Bill, 2019 on the sale or consumption of electrical energy with the twin objectives of generating additional resources and development of electrical infrastructure in the State. The Bill envisaged broadening the revenue base. It will lead to substantial increase in the collection of state revenue. Notably, the Governor promulgated the Tripura Electricity Duty Ordinance, 2019 on August 3 last as the House was not in session and immediate action was required to be taken in this regard. “The Bill now seeks to replace the said Ordinance and it would not involve any additional expenditure”, he Dev Varma said.
