Salary cut for President by 50%

At a time when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has given individual tax payers a major benefit, President Pratibha Patil's salary and allowances have come down by half.

The budgetary allocation for Rashtrapati Bhavan for 2010-11 saw a small jump of 9.93 per cent with increase earmarked under the head of expenditure on household, salaries of the staff and office expenses for Presidential secretariat.

However, under the head of salaries and allowances in respect of President, the proposals has been pegged at Rs 0.18 crore, a decline of 50 per cent over last fiscal when the funds were pegged at Rs 0.38 crore.

The budget for the Rashtrapati Bhavan has been pegged at Rs 29.11 crore in comparison to last year's Rs 27.52 crore.

The allocation also covers establishment-related expenses in respect of all the staff of the secretariat and purchase of vehicles.