LAHORE, Nov 14: The Prime Minister’s Secretariat has rejected a summary proposing an increase in theassessed price of gifts received and retained by state functionaries, from presidents down to deputy secretaries.

An official of the Tosha Khana (state depository) confirmed that the summary had been rejected by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

The summary had suggested an increase in the reserved price of the gifts by 15 to 50 per cent, and after the rejection of the proposal will continue to be auctioned in accordance with the old pricing formula.

Although misappropriation of gifts has been going on for many decades, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz further reduced the reserved price of these gifts by 15 to 25 per cent in 2006 without taking the matter to his cabinet.

And taking advantage of the reduction, Mr Aziz himself retained hundreds of gifts, including a number of precious jewel-studded wrist watches by paying the wrongly assessed market price of just a few thousand rupees. Besides, he did not deposit in the Tosha Khana gifts with ‘market prices of Rs1,500 or less’.

Rules allow officials to retain gifts with a market value of less than Rs10,000 without paying anything.

President Asif Zardari is alleged to have set a record within a year of assuming office by taking one-third of all expensive gifts presented to all former presidents and prime ministers. Of the gifts of the value of Rs160 million, Mr Zardari reportedly took away items of Rs62 million value during the first year of his presidency.

Taking notice of the reports, chairperson of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat Shahid Hussain Bugti recommended in December last year an increase in the payment to be made for taking a gift from the existing 15 per cent to 50 per cent of the assessed price.

The committee felt that the previously received payment of 15 per cent of the assessed value of a gift was negligible and suggested that in future the assessment should be made in a transparent manner.

On the basis of the recommendation, the cabinet division submitted a summary to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani who turned it down.