MOSCOW, December 17 (RAPSI) – The Federation Council has approved a government-proposed bill to raise wages for judges, Interfax reports on Wednesday.

According to an explanatory note to the bill, judges’ basic salaries are to be raised in stages by 30 percent from 2014 through 2016. The basic salaries are to be indexed (raised - ed.) as of October 1, 2014.

According to the bill, the average monthly salary of the Constitutional Court chairman would reach 98 percent of the Russian president’s salary by 2017.

The monthly lifelong maintenance payments for retired judges would be increased and the monthly salaries of the judges entitled to lifelong maintenance, who continue working after reaching the retirement age, would be raised by 50 percent.

According to the financial substantiation of the bill, the implementation of these provisions would require additional budget funding of 1.7 billion rubles (over $27mln at the current exchange rate) in 2014, 8.8 billion rubles ($144mln) in 2015, and 16.2 billion rubles ($265mln) in 2016.

Deputy Finance Minister Yury Zubarev said, when answering MPs questions in the State Duma, that the salary of the district court chairman, which is111,000 rubles ($1,780), will be raised to 138,000 rubles ($2,257) in 2016. The salaries of regional court chairmen will grow from 133,000 rubles ($2,175) to 175,000 rubles ($2,860), and the salary of the Supreme Court chairman will increase from 438,000 rubles ($7,162) to 505,000 rubles ($8,258).