Uttar Pradesh bears I-T burden of its MLAs with 'meagre earnings' of Rs 1.9 lakh a month; India's VVIP culture runs deeper than defunct red beacons

According to the affidavits filed by the candidates in the Legislative Assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, more than 80 percent of MLAs were multi-millionaire. According to a Times of India report a law passed in 1981 by then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and former prime minister VP Singh mandates the state exchequer to pay the income tax of the state’s chief minister and his council of minister. The law named Uttar Pradesh Ministers’ Salaries, Allowances, and Miscellaneous Act, 1981 clearly states, “The salary referred to in sub-sections and shall be exclusive of the tax payable in respect of such salary under any the law relating to income tax for the time being in force and such tax shall be borne by the state government.” Uttar Pradesh is known for extending such privileges to its lawmakers some of which has come under the scanner of the judiciary. In May 2018 in a landmark judgment the bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi quashed the law that allowed former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh to retain their official bungalows even after demitting the office, for a lifetime. The apex court held that a former chief minister is only a “commoner” and not a “special class of citizen” who can enjoy privileges, perks, and official bungalows at taxpayers’ expense for his entire lifetime.