NEW DELHI: Government has suggested to Arvind Panagariya that he as vice chairman of Niti Aayog can get the same salary as a Cabinet minister, but has also underlined that he will get less than what he draws now if he were to switch.

Panagariya has the rank of a Cabinet minister but his salary has been fixed at the level of cabinet secretary. That he gets less than what others having his rank receive has taken on importance because it is being cited as an instance of the government failing to match its professed respect for the Columbia University economist with the importance and perks that has been offered to him as vice chairman of Niti Aayog.

However, sources said that what appears to be an anomaly is actually not so and that the mismatch between the salary and the rank actually helps Panagariya. They pointed out that the salary of a Cabinet minister includes the Rs 2,000 per day constituency allowance that he gets by virtue of being a member of Parliament, and which will not be available to Panagariya if he were to decide to insist for a remuneration befitting his position.

In fact, he will be loser because he, sans the 60,000 that he cannot claim because he is not an MP, “will get less than what he draws now”, said a source.

“However, we will leave it to him”, the source added.

Panagariya's salary and the perceived lack of comfort level has been part of conversation in Delhi's bureaucratic circles with many insisting that the former chief economist with the Asian Development Bank and an ardent supporter of the Gujarat model during the run up to the campaign for 2014 Lok Sabha polls, must be disappointed with the deal he has got so far.

That he, unlike the deputy chairperson of Planning Commission, does not get invited for meetings of the Union Cabinet is emphasized to support the claim.

But while sources acknowledge instances of tension between Panagariya and a senior bureaucrat, they emphasize the political leadership values the suggestions of the Columbia don.

“His inputs are taken very seriously”, said a senior source, though he admitted that Panagariya's lack of familiarity with the ways of bureaucracy which has always been instinctively wary of outsiders. “These are teething troubles which can always be sorted out”, said the source while giving the example of chief economic adviser, Arvind Subramanian.

The CEA reaches out to bureaucrats and others, says the source. “He has no qualms in visiting bureaucrats in offices if he wants to understand any thing and has been getting excellent response”, said a senior government functionary.