Presidency, PM Office budget slashed.

Islamabad -- The budget of Presidency and Prime Minister Office for the fiscal year 2020-2021 has phenomenally reduced as part of government's austerity efforts.

According to budget documents, a total budget of the President House for 2020-21 is to the tune of Rs.597 million, which has been slashed by 60.18 per cent from Rs.992 million for the outgoing fiscal year 2019-2020.

The reduction has been shown in personal expenditures of the President along with cuts in allowances of the employees posted at the Presidency.

The budget book 2020-21 shows that regular allowance and other allowances of staff and officers posted in the President secretariat are Rs193.22m for the upcoming fiscal year, as compared to Rs458.74m spent under the same head in the outgoing fiscal year. Similarly, a major cut has been made in the operating expenditures of the presidency to Rs53.38m, which was Rs180.44m in the fiscal 2019-20.

A major reduction has been made in the repair and maintenance expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year at Rs3.86m as compared to Rs21.09m in the outgoing year.

It appears that President Alvi is not taking any salary that was Rs 10.75m in 2019-20 as there is no mention of this head in the budget documents along with other expenditures such as Rs15.65m...