June 12, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 11: While the government announced some austerity measures and reduced expenses of the Prime Minister Secretariat, it did not say a word about reducing the expenditure of the Predient House, whose allocations were increased by over eight per cent in the budget.

According to budget proposals, Rs353.84 million has been earmarked for the staff, household and allowances of the President House, against last year’s Rs327.59 million, an increase of over Rs26 million.

Under the heads of grants, subsidies and loan write-offs, the President House will get Rs79.5 million, against Rs77.5 million allocated in the budget for 2007-08.

Interestingly, no increase has been made for employees’ retirement benefits in the budget as the allocation under this head remains unchanged at Rs1.6 million.

There was a slight increase in the President House’s operating expenses. It was increased to Rs76.1 million from Rs68.29 in the previous budget.

An amount of Rs12.8 million was allocated for ‘transfers’.

Staff salary consumed the maximum chunk of the expenses of the President House, which also registered an increase, rising to Rs161.86 million from Rs142.73 million earmarked in the outgoing year’s budget.

The allocation for physical assets and repair and maintenance of the President House has slightly declined with Rs11.65 million and Rs10.32 million earmarked for the two heads, respectively, against the previous year’s allocation of Rs12.1 million and Rs12.5 million.

The Prime Minister Secretariat’s total expenditure has been reduced by 34 per cent with Rs230.8 million allocated in the budget against last year’s allocation of Rs351.3 million.

The budget document shows a decline in the estimated expenditures of all heads of the secretariat and its total expenditure has been reduced by Rs120.4 million.

An amount of Rs119.8 million has been earmarked under the head of salary and allowances, Rs45.6 million for operating expenses, Rs700,000 for employees’ retirement benefits, Rs38.5 million for grant subsidies and loan write-offs, Rs11 million for transfers, Rs8 million for physical assets and Rs6.7 million for repairs and maintenance.