NLD Lawmakers to Forego 25 Percent of Pay Packet for Party Fund

By The Irrawaddy 8 February 2016

RANGOON — The National League for Democracy (NLD) will deduct a portion of its lawmakers’ salaries for party funds, according to a statement released last week.

Signed by one of the party’s central committee members, Win Htein, the letter outlines that 25 percent of each MPs’ monthly salaries will be collected as party funds.

Both houses of Burma’s new Union Parliament convened last week, with 390 lawmakers representing the NLD.

The party has implemented a sweeping donation policy to raise funds. Outgoing NLD lawmakers have also agreed to donate the entirety of their “party pension,” a state-funded gratuity paid for their time served in Parliament, to a party fund.

More than 40 NLD members that entered Parliament following an April 2012 by-election took a 10 percent pay cut when their monthly salary was at 300,000 kyat. The new 25 percent pay cut comes after lawmakers’ salaries increased in April 2015 to 1 million kyat per month.

Following the NLD’s convincing electoral victory in November, Suu Kyi told MP-elects that they could expect a drastic reduction in salary—somewhere between 25 and 50 percent.

“Anyone in the top positions will see a 50 percent pay cut,” she said, according to a party member present at the meeting.