But his corresponding decision to double the parliamentarians' pay angered a middle class upset at the absence of sops for it in the budget. Jaitley referred to the public's longstanding resentment of the MPs' ability to decide their own pay and said the law would be amended to provide for automatic five-yearly revisions, indexed to inflation, instead. Parliamentarians' pay was last raised 10 years ago. Senior Congress politician Ahmed Patel welcomed the move to divest MPs of their right to decide their own pay. "It is good that in budget there is systematic inflation-linked index to increase MP salaries," Patel tweeted.

Source: The Telegraph February 01, 2018 20:26 UTC