RBI Governor Urjit Patel and his deputies have received a salary increase with the government more than doubling their basic salary to ₹2.5 lakh and ₹2.25 lakh a 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 the ₹90,000 basic pay so far drawn by the Governor and ₹80,000 by his deputies.
Still, their salaries are much lower than what top executives of various banks regulated by the RBI draw. The monthly emoluments of these top RBI officials include basic pay, dearness allowance and other payments, which totalled ₹2,09,500 in case of Mr. Patel as on November 30, 2016, as per the latest information disclosed on the RBI website.
In response to a query under the Right to Information Act, the central bank disclosed that as per a Finance Ministry communication, dated February 21, the basic pay of the Governor and Deputy Governors had been revised.
Retrospective effect
Following the revision, the basic pay of the Governor stands increased to ₹2,50,000 a month, while the same for a Deputy Governor would be ₹2,25,000, the RBI said. The pay hike is “with effect from January 1, 2016”.
The dearness allowance is 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 Mr. Patel and his deputies following the revision in basic pay.
With the earlier basic pay of ₹90,000, Mr. Patel got a DA of ₹1,12,500 and ‘other payments’ of ₹7,000 — totalling to a gross pay of ₹2,09,500. The increase in the basic itself would take his gross pay to nearly ₹3.7 lakh.
Mr. Patel, who took over the reins of the RBI in September 2016, had received a salary of ₹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.
Mr. Rajan assumed RBI governorship from September 5, 2013 at a monthly salary of ₹1.69 lakh.
His salary was revised to ₹1.78 lakh and ₹1.87 lakh, respectively, during 2014 and March 2015. His salary was raised to ₹2.09 lakh from ₹2.04 lakh in January 2016.
It was not clear whether Mr. 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. Last November, the Deputy Governors, R. Gandhi, S.S. Mundra and N.S. Vishwanathan, were taking home a basic pay of ₹80,000 a month.
