RBI GOVERNOR'S SALARY
RBI Governor’s salary
Recently, a mainstream
newspaper carried a story captioned ‘RBI Governor Urjit Patel gets Rs2 lakhs a
month pay, no support staff at home’. The story claimed authenticity by quoting
from ‘information’ obtained under RTI. It is another matter that GOI and RBI
are not so secretive about the salary and perks of top officials in government
and statutory bodies. Still, the story attracted over 200 online comments, some
serious, some sarcastic and yet others totally irrelevant to the context.
In fact, RBI
Governor and his deputies are drawing ‘pre-revised’ salaries after the central
government revised pay and perks of its employees at all levels based on the
VII Pay Commission recommendations. This
was evident from the notification calling for applications from prospective
candidates for filling the Deputy Governor’s vacancy following elevation of
Patel as governor. The salary offered was indicated as ‘pre-revised’.
Why this delay
in salary revision of top officials in RBI and similarly placed central
government appointees heading public sector organizations? Looks, the file is
gathering dust somewhere in the corner rooms of North Block (Finance Ministry).
A simple reminder from Mint Road (RBI) may help.
There are a
couple of deeper issues. One, RBI Governor’s job is not a post-retirement ‘social
work’(it is a 24X7 job requiring professional alertness) and the nation need to
pay the incumbent decently and take care of his normal needs to maintain the
status of the position in the present day world. Two, a leader who feels he is
not ‘treated well’ will not be able to lead his team efficiently.
M G Warrier, Mumbai
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