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Parliamentarians travel allowance multiplied by two
By Khalid Mustafa
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Finance, which met here on Thursday, has unanimously approved the whopping 100 percent increase in travelling allowances of all members of parliament.
The Senate committee’s recommendation will now be sent to the National Assembly for approval. The committee also recommended a reduction in intervals in meetings of the Senate and NA committees from seven to four days, apparently to charge more travelling allowances from taxpayers.
The committee also approved an increase in travelling allowance by road from Rs5 to Rs30 per kilometre. However, it asked for reduction in the expenditures of the Presidency, and Prime Minister’s House and Secretariat. In the proposed budget for 2012-13, allocations for the Presidency and PM House jumped by Rs134 million and Rs156 million respectively.
For the Presidency, the new proposed budgetary allocation stands at Rs616.7 million, which means a sum of Rs1.68 million will be spent on the Presidency per day from the taxpayers’ pocket. Similarly, a staggering amount of Rs702.83 million has been allocated for the PM Secretariat.
According to the latest provisions, the daily expenditure of the PM House and Secretariat is expected to cross Rs1.92 million per day this year.
PML-N leader Senator Ishaq Dar said there should be no more allocations for the security of former presidents and premiers, and additional allocation to this effect should be diverted to some productive usage. He said the increase in budgetary allocations for the Presidency, PM House and Secretariat should be reduced.
Dar said 100 percent increase in the allowances of the staff in the Presidency, PM House and Secretariat was tantamount to creating various classes in the country. “The government should increase allowances of all of its employees by 25 percent,” he added. The member of the Senate body asked the Finance Ministry to present a detailed presentation on employees and their allowances today (Friday).
However, PPP leaders Osman Saifullah Khan and Saeed Ghani said presidents and premiers were assets of the country. “They also have secrets of the country, so their security is necessary,” they added.
Adviser to Finance Ministry Rana Asad Amin said the raise in allocation for the Presidency, PM House and Secretariat was mainly because of 100 percent raise in allowances of employees working there.
Out of Rs616.708 million allocated for the Presidency, Rs145.655 million have been allocated for the president’s household and staff against the last year’s amount of Rs110.473 million. The staff and household comprise the employees who provide services to the president and include butlers, waiters, etc.
A sum of Rs1 million has been allocated for the president’s salary, Rs3.5 million for presents and charity, Rs1 million for the president’s discretionary grant, Rs20 million for the maintenance of presidential gardens, and Rs23.5 million for state conveyance and cars.
The allocations of Rs175 million was made for the staff of the President Secretariat (Public). For the staff and household of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, a sum of Rs124.212 million has been allocated against Rs103.722 million for the previous year. An amount of Rs57.8 million has been allocated for wages of household servants under employment at the PM House against Rs45.41 million made in the previous year, Rs2.39 million have been allocated for state conveyance and cars and Rs19.91 million for the PM House’s garden.
Courtesy www.geo.tv