PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister House on Thursday claimed to have reduced its expenses by Rs160 million during the current fiscal year.

According to a statement issued from the Chief Minister Secretariat, the total expenditure, including salary and non-salary, incurred during the ongoing fiscal year till date stands at Rs280 million which is expected to reach a maximum of Rs330 million by the end of the fiscal year.

In comparison, during the fiscal year 2017-18, the total expenditure of the CM Secretariat stood at Rs490 million. It said that before the PTI-led government, during the financial year 2012-13, the total expenditure incurred on account of non-salary budget was Rs160 million whereas during 2018-19, the total expenditure, despite inflation, stood at Rs110 million.

It said that considerable savings had been made possible by reducing expenditures in the entertainment, POL, electricity, plant and machinery, repair and maintenance, TA/DA, repair of vehicles, furniture and other similar financial heads which had brought about substantial savings to the provincial exchequer from the CM Secretariat alone.

The figures state that during 2017-18 the total expenditure incurred on account of entertainment stood at Rs60 million whereas during the ongoing financial year over Rs10 million expenditures had been made till now. The expenditure on account of POL stood at over Rs20 million in the previous fiscal whereas during the ongoing fiscal over Rs10 million had been spent so far.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2019