ISLAMABAD, June 1: Despite making tall claims about adopting austerity measures, expenditures of President and Prime Minister houses have gone up by 27 per cent in one year, budget 2012-13 document reveals.

Interestingly, the expenditure of Prime Minister House (PMH) has increased despite an unexpected announcement by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani last month that it would be converted into a public welfare institution.

Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Sheikh, in his budget speech on Friday said it had been decided to convert the PMH into a Centre for Advance Studies.

Despite the decision to convert the PMH into a public welfare institution, 27 per cent more funds have been allocated for it.

The total expenditure of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, which includes offices also, is Rs702 million, down from the current year’s Rs741 million. However, the Prime Minister House’s budget for the new fiscal year is Rs364 million against the last year’s expenditure of Rs286 million.

Employees-related expenses in the new budget are Rs101 million against Rs83 million spent last year. Repair and maintenance will cost Rs124 million against last year’s expenditure of Rs103 million.

An amount of Rs27 million has been allocated for motor cars against Rs24 million spent under this head last year.

PRESIDENCY: The government has been continuously increasing the budget of the Presidency for the last five years.

The expenses of the President’s House have been increased by 27.78 per cent to Rs616.70 million for the upcoming fiscal year, compared to Rs482.63 million in the previous fiscal.

Interestingly, the budget document shows that the salary of the President is Rs83,300 per month because a sum of Rs1 million has been allocated for the year 2012-13.

The president has also discretion to utilise a sum of Rs80.5 million as charity, presents and other grants. Since President Asif Ali Zardari took over the charge, the budget of the Presidency has been increased by 74 per cent, up from Rs353.84 million in 2008-09.

During the past five years a major jump has been seen in expenses borne by gardens of the Presidency because their budget was Rs8.2million in 2008-09 which has reached Rs21.20 million in the budget 2012-13.