When it comes to spending on tours, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley does not want to loosen his purses but his colleagues in the council of ministers have other plans.
The Union ministers were allocated Rs 269 crore in 2015-16, for tour expenses but they ended up spending Rs 566.66 crore.However, Jaitley is not moved by this and has allocated only Rs 259 crore for the next fiscal, apparently with a hope that he may be able to control spending on this front.
In the Budget allocation for expenses of the Cabinet, Jaitley has allocated only Rs 419.64 crore and the bulk goes to tour expenses. This comes at a time when the actual spending of Rs 713.27 crore had overshoot the actual allocation of Rs 416.99 crore in the 2015 Budget.
For ministers’ salary, Rs 5.40 crore has been allocated while the Prime Minister’s Office would get Rs 43.79 crore, up from Rs 39.26 crore.
Published 29 February 2016, 19:50 IST