Parliament panel proposes to raise MPs’ salaries, allowances

The Dewan Rakyat's House Committee had a meeting this week to decide on increasing the salary of members of parliament. – December 5, 2013.Salaries and meeting allowances of Malaysian federal lawmakers are expected to more than double to at least RM16,000 and RM500 respectively under a proposal to be tabled today, weeks after pay hikes in several states caused a stir among some political parties last week.

A member of parliament (MP) now earns a basic salary of RM6,508.59 and a meeting allowance of RM200 per day. There are other allowances that total to about RM5,000 a month, according to the Members of Parliament (Remuneration) Act.

An MP, who asked not to be named, said the Dewan Rakyat's House Committee met this week to decide on the new salaries and allowances, following pay hikes for assemblymen in Sarawak, Selangor and Penang.

"An MP's pay is to go up to RM16,000 which is a Jusa A or divisional secretary's salary. That, plus allowances, will could push our pay up to RM35,000 a month," the veteran lawmaker told The Malaysian Insider.

Another source said the House Committee, headed by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, has reached an agreement on the new salaries and allowances. There are six other members in the committee, including two opposition lawmakers.

The salaries of MPs and elected government representatives are governed by the Members of Parliament (Remuneration) Act.

This includes the salaries of the prime ,inister (RM 22,826.65), deputy prime minister (RM18,168.15), minister (RM14,907.20), member of senate (RM4,112.79), MPs (RM6,508.59) and the leader of the opposition (additional RM3,846.59).

MPs are also given allowable claims under the Statute Paper 235 of the act, including entertainment (RM1,500), driver (RM1,200), travel (RM1,500), telephone (RM900) and a daily allowance of RM200, apart from meetings by government agencies which are set at RM150 a day.

According to a “Berita Harian” report in 2011, neighbouring countries have higher salaries for their lawmakers after conversion to ringgit. Among them are Thailand (RM12,000),  Singapore (RM34,000) and Indonesia (RM18,000).

The round of pay hikes started in May when Sarawak agreed to triple the pay of its assemblymen to RM15,000 from RM4,500 a month.

The other pay rises were chief minister from RM13,000 to RM39,000; deputy chief minister, RM11,500 to RM35,000; senior minister and state assembly speaker, RM9,000 to RM30,000; ministers, RM9,000 to RM27,000; assistant ministers and assembly deputy speaker, RM7,000 to RM21,000; and political secretaries, RM3,000 to RM9,000.

This was followed last week by Selangor when its legislative assembly passed a 268% pay hike for the Selangor speaker, along with pay rises for the menteri besar (RM29,250 a month), deputy speaker (RM15,750) and assemblymen (RM11,250).

Penang followed suit with a proposal to increase an assemblyperson’s salary from RM4,112.79 to RM6,000.

The state also sought to increase allowances for the assemblymen from RM2,000 to RM5,500, comprising special allowances (RM1,500), driver and  fixed allowances (RM1,500), transport allowance (RM1,000), miscellaneous allowances (RM1,000) and housing allowance (RM500).

The state said in total, an assemblyperson's remuneration will go up from the current RM6,112.79 to RM11,500.

Johor has also indicated it will raise the salaries of its assemblymen but did not give any figures.

The salary hike for MPs and assemblymen has not gone down well with the average Malaysian who is now bracing for higher power tariffs of some 15% in the peninsula and 16% in Sabah and Labuan from January 1, 2014, and new consumption tax called the goods and services tax of 6%, effective April 2015.

According to the Statistics Department, the average Malaysian household income rose from RM4,025 in 2009 to just RM5,000 in 2012, or a 7.2% rise.