New Delhi, April 2 (PTI): The government has more than doubled the basic salaries of RBI governor Urjit Patel and his deputies.

While the basic salary of Patel has been increased to Rs 2.5 lakh a month, that of the deputy governors has been hiked to Rs 2.25 lakh.

The "basic pay of the RBI governor and deputy governors have been revised with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.

Now, the RBI governor draws a basic salary of Rs 90,000 a month and the deputy governors get Rs 80,000.

Even after the increment, their salaries are much lower than top executives of the various banks regulated by the RBI.

The monthly emoluments of the RBI governor and deputy governors include basic pay, dearness allowance and other payments, which totalled Rs 2,09,500 in case of Patel as on November 30, 2016, according to the latest information disclosed on the RBI website.

In response to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the central bank disclosed that according to a finance ministry communication dated February 21, the basic pay of the governor and the deputy governors had been revised.

Following the revision, the basic pay of the governor has been increased to Rs 2.5 lakh and that of the deputy governors to Rs 2.25 lakh, the RBI said.

The pay hike is "with effect from January 1, 2016", the RTI reply said.

The dearness allowance will be notified by the Centre from time to time while "all other allowances (are) to be paid at existing rates as if the pay has not been received with effect from January 1, 2016", the RTI reply said.

The RBI, however, did not disclose the new gross pay of the governor and his deputies following the revision in the basic salary.

When the basic pay was Rs 90,000, Patel got a DA of Rs 1,12,500 and "other payments" of Rs 7,000 - which added up to a gross pay of Rs 2,09,500. The increase in the basic will take his gross pay to nearly Rs 3.7 lakh.

Patel, who took over the reins of the RBI in September 2016, had received a salary of Rs 2.09 lakh in October - his first full month in office.

The amount was same as that drawn by his predecessor, Raghuram Rajan, in August that year.

The RBI has four deputy governors - A.R. Gandhi, S.S. Mundra, N.S. Vishwanathan and Viral V. Acharya.