Bulk of PM office’s annual budget goes into paying salaries

NEW DELHI: Running the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) isn’t easy. It entails a huge annual budget for office expenses that is often overshot. And while the bills for the PM’S foreign visits are settled under the budget head “maintenance of PM’S special aircraft and other charges,” the PMO too incurs expenses on both foreign and domestic tours.

While salaries constitute about 75% to 80% of the total expenses in the country’s top executive office, spending on office expenses comes second, accounting for about 10%-15% of PMO’S budget every year.

A glance through the annual expenses of the PMO under Narendra Modi also reveals that expenses on staff salaries jumped in 2016-17 because of the implementation of Pay Commission recommendations before stabilizing for the next two years. “The PMO works daily. There are senior officers who come to office even on Saturdays and Sundays, even if it’s for 3-4 hours,” said a senior official.