Shimla, Aug 27 - The Himachal Pradesh assembly Thursday unanimously passed an amendment bill to hike salaries and allowances of legislators and ministers.

The hike in pay packages for speaker and deputy speaker, ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries and legislators range from Rs.16,000 to Rs.20,000 per month.

The bill was introduced in the house by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal Wednesday.

Now, the chief minister's salary is Rs.64,000 per month, the speaker will get Rs.61,000, the ministers and the chief parliamentary secretaries will take Rs.58,000, and legislators get Rs.55,000 per month.

The loan limit for legislators has also been raised to Rs.20 lakh from Rs.14 lakh.

Leader of Opposition Vidya Stokes said this was the right decision in view of the rise in the price index.

She is the only legislator in the state who takes a token Re.1 per month as salary.

'I have never taken a salary more than Re.1 in my entire political career. I have also never taken any allowances,' she said.