Rs916 million earmarked for Prime Minister Office

4% more for PM Office, 11% for Presidency

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has proposed Rs916 million for the Prime Minister Office in the federal budget 2017-18, which is just 4.0 per cent higher when compared with Rs881 million allocated in the outgoing fiscal year.

Interestingly, the amount proposed for the Presidency is a bit higher than that of the PM Office. It saw an increase of 11 per cent to Rs959 million, from Rs863 million in the outgoing fiscal year which was later revised up to Rs941 million.

However, the newly-proposed budget for the PM Office i.e. Rs916 million shows 3.6 per cent reduction when compared with the revised budget of Rs950 million in the outgoing fiscal year.



The PM Office’s budget of Rs881 million in the outgoing fiscal shows 4.6 per cent increase over its original budget of Rs842 million in FY2015-16, which was later revised upward to Rs860 million.

Separately, the PM Office had received a supplementary grant of Rs154 million in the current fiscal year.

The PM Office comprises two sections -- Public (P) and Internal (I).

The P section has been allocated Rs405 million, slightly lower than Rs406 million in the outgoing financial year, which was later revised upward to Rs445 million.



On the other hand, the I section’s allocation witnessed an increase of 35.71 per cent to Rs3.8 million as against Rs2.8 million during the current fiscal, which was also revised upward to Rs3.3 million.

Furthermore, the ‘entertainment and gifts’ allocation for the PM House saw an increase of 16.6 per cent to Rs3.5 million as against Rs3 million in the outgoing financial year.

According to official sources, the allocation for PM Office will also account for the PM House expenses, but the same has not been specified in the budgetary documents. The PM House’s budget had not been specified either in the current fiscal year’s budgetary documents.



The PM Office’s new budget does not include the discretionary funds the PM has at his disposal to spend at any given area, including development schemes in political constituencies and related activities. These discretionary funds are believed to be estimated in billions. Officially, however, only Rs1 million had been earmarked under the ‘discretionary grant’ for PM Office in the outgoing financial year.

The PM Office’s budget in FY2014-15 was Rs779 billion, which witnessed an increase of 8.0 per cent in financial year 2015-16, with an allocation of Rs842 million.

Even though, the annual budget for the PM House was not specified separately in the outgoing financial year, Rs286.7 million had been set aside under the heads of ‘staff and household’ and ‘wages of household servants’. Additionally, Rs4 million had been allocated for ‘presents and charities’ against Rs2.5 million set aside under the same head in the previous financial year. At least Rs750,000 had been allocated for the employees retirement benefits while Rs2.8 million had been allocated under the head of PM’s tour expenses (domestic) in this fiscal year.



In the outgoing fiscal year, Rs10 million had been set aside for the president’s salary and Rs1.2 million for presents and charities. However, these specifications have not been made in the budgetary allocations for the new financial year 2017-18.

Like the PM House, the President House’s budget too was not specified in the outgoing financial year’s budgetary allocations. At least Rs1 million had been allocated under the discretionary grant for the President’s Office. The discretionary funds have not been specified for the upcoming financial year.