By Chamara Sampath
The 225 members elected to the new parliament are due to be sworn in on the 20th of this month and the proceedings of the 9th parliament will continue as usual from then on.
Although 225 Members of Parliament have been elected, the 225 Members of Parliament have not been completed due to conflicts in the National List seats of some parties. Therefore, the names of 223 Members of Parliament have been gazetted.
There were 304 political parties and 313 independent groups contesting the general election and 7452 candidates were contesting in 22 electoral districts. Out of these, 196 successful candidates have been selected as Members of Parliament and 29 persons will be nominated for Members of Parliament from the National List.
It is no secret that there is a lot of competition for a seat called the House of Representatives and that candidates spend a lot of money for a seat.
This article is based on information obtained from the Information Act in this regard as the people need to know what privileges are given to the people’s representatives who are elected as Members of Parliament after such a contest.
All Members of the Opposition in Parliament are entitled to Members’ Allowances while certain allowances paid by Parliament are suspended when Members of Parliament are appointed to ministerial or Deputy Ministerial posts. But instead they are made to pay ministerial allowances by the government.
Accordingly, the privileges enjoyed by all, whether a Minister, a Deputy Minister or a Member of Parliament, are as follows:
Meeting allowances
The attendance allowance for all Ministers, Deputy Ministers, State Ministers and Members of Parliament per day for attending the sittings of Parliament is Rs. 2500 / – .
Committee Allowance
For attending Committees meeting on non-parliamentary days, each will be paid Rs. 2500 / =. Parliament stated that allowances will not be paid for participation in any of the Committees held during the sitting days of Parliament.
Office allowance
For all Ministers, Deputy Ministers, State Ministers and Members of Parliament Rs. 100,000 / = will be given per person.
Member’s Allowance (Salary)
The salaries of Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Ministers of State are not paid by Parliament and are paid only to Members of Parliament.
Accordingly, a monthly salary of Rs. 54,285.00 is paid to the Members of Parliament.
Their hospitality allowance is Rs. 1000.00 per month.
The driver’s allowance is Rs. 3,500.00 per month and the driver’s allowance is paid only if there is no driver who is paid by the government.
Fuel allowance
The fuel allowance is paid according to the market prices on the first day of the month for the number of liters of diesel calculated based on the distance of each Member of Parliament to Parliament from the district in which he is elected. Accordingly, for example, 283.94 liters of fuel is paid for the Colombo district and 355.58 liters for the Gampaha and Kalutara districts.
Telephone allowance
For landlines and mobile phones Rs. 50,000.00 each and the telephone bills will not be paid or reimbursed by the Parliament.
Private Staff Transport Allowance
2,500 / – per month for four private staff members to come to the office. 10,000.00 is provided by Parliament.
Free postal facilities
Each Member of Parliament is given a stamp allowance of Rs. 350,000.00 annually. Accordingly, stamp duty of Rs. 87,500.00 per quarter is paid to Members of Parliament.
The allowances of the Members of Parliament are practised in this manner and they are not given any other allowances such as Supervising Members’ Allowances, Railway Licenses, Dependencies Allowances, Official Allowances, Newspaper Allowances.
From the 20th of this month, the public will be able to see how the members of the Opposition carry out their duties as public representatives by receiving these allowances.
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