Their allowance to engage legislative and secretariat assistants will also be raised

April 9, 2007
AsiaOne

Members of Parliaments can also look forward to an increase in their monthly allowance, which will be raised from $11,900 to $13,200 from this month.

The allowances for them to engage a legislative assistant will also go up from $1,000 to $1,300, and from $350 to $500 for a secretarial assistant.

The MP allowance is pegged to the Adminstrative Service SR9 grade , which is typically a director-level position. It includes a non-pensionable annual allowance or the 13th month pay, and the annual variable component, which is paid in July and December each year.

Giving details of the adjusted MP allowance in Parliament today, Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also Minister in charge of Civil Service, said the annual package for MPs was $100,500, or 56 per cent of the SR9 annual package in 1995.

"Over the years, the SR9 annual package has risen with a large proportion of the increase paid as annual components ¡V the GDP Bonus and performance bonus. As MPs do not receive these components, their annual package has decreased as a proportion of the SR9 annual package. The current MP annual allowance is now 47% of the SR9 annual package," the Minister told the House.

He also announced that the GDP Bonus will also be extended to MPs, to link their annual package to the state of the economy.

"MPs will receive 1 month of GDP bonus if GDP grows at 5%, and up to 2 months of GDP bonus if the GDP growth reaches or exceeds 8% GDP. But if GDP growth is 2% or less, there will be no GDP bonus paid," said Mr Teo.

"The combined changes will bring the 2007 MP package back to 56% of the SR9 package, similar to the 1995 levels. We will make corresponding adjustments to the allowances for Non-constituency MPs and Nominated MPs."

The adjustments will take effect from April 1, 2007.

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