Business Standard: New Delhi: Monday,
April 03, 2017.
Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel and his deputies have got a big pay hike
with the government more than doubling their basic salary to Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs
2.25 lakh per month, respectively.
The
"basic pay of the Governor and Deputy Governors" have been revised
retrospectively with effect from January 1, 2016, and marks a huge jump from Rs
90,000 basic pay so far drawn by the Governor and Rs 80,000 for his deputies.
Still, their
salaries are much lower than the top executives of various banks regulated by
the RBI.
The monthly
emoluments of these top RBI officials include 'basic pay', dearness allowance
and 'other payments', which totalled Rs 2,09,500 in case of Patel as on
November 30, 2016, as per the latest information disclosed on the RBI website.
In response
to a query by PTI under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the central bank
has now disclosed that as per a Finance Ministry communication, dated February
21, the basic pay of the Governor and Deputy Governors have been revised.
Following the
revision, the basic pay of the Governor stands increased to Rs 2,50,000 per
month while the same for a Deputy Governor would be Rs 2,25,000, RBI said.
The pay hike
is "with effect from January 1, 2016".
Dearness
Allowance would be notified by the central government from time to time while
"all other allowances (are) to be paid at existing rates as if the pay has
not been received with effect from January 1, 2016," the RTI reply said.
The RBI,
however, did not disclose the new gross pay for Patel and his deputies
following the revision in basic pay.
With the
earlier basic pay of Rs 90,000, Patel got a DA of Rs 1,12,500 and 'other
payments' of Rs 7,000 totalling to a gross pay of Rs 2,09,500. The increase in
the basic itself would take his gross pay to nearly Rs 3.70 lakh.
Patel, who
took over the reins of the central bank in September 2016, had received a salary
of Rs 2.09 lakh in October the first full month in office. This amount was same
as drawn by his predecessor Raghuram Rajan in August that year.
Rajan assumed
RBI governorship from September 5, 2013, at a monthly salary of Rs 1.69 lakh.
His salary was revised to Rs 1.78 lakh and Rs 1.87 lakh respectively during
2014 and March 2015. His salary was raised to Rs 2.09 lakh from Rs 2.04 lakh in
January 2016.
It was not
clear whether Rajan, who left the RBI on September 4, 2016, would be eligible
for arrears as the basic pay for Governor has been revised retrospectively
while covering little more than nine months of his tenure.
Currently, RBI
has four deputy governors R Gandhi, S S Mundra, N S Vishwanathan and Viral V
Acharya.
At the end of
November last year, Gandhi, Mundra and Vishwanathan were taking home a basic
pay of Rs 80,000 per month. Acharya took charge in January this year.
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