Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Parliament raises President's pay — Derrick A Paulo
PARLIAMENT has approved increases to the President's pay and household expenses at the Istana, but lowered the amount budgeted for personal staff and other services.
Minister of State (Finance) Lim Hwee Hua told MPs yesterday that the increases were "in view of higher bonuses and higher expenditure on utilities".
The President's pay, also known as the Privy Purse, has been revised to $2,661,700 from $2,507,200, while his entertainment allowance for the fiscal year 2006 is now $132,000, up from $117,000.
The amount set aside for expenses at the Istana also rose to $1,301,500 from $1,108,500.
As part of the adjustments, expenditure on personal staff and special services was lowered. This went down by $8,800 for personal staff, and by $28,300 for special services such as the purchase of cars and office equipment.
The changes passed without questions or debate.
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Questions with few answers:
- Is the GST hike really used to help to the poor? Or is it part of the whole picture that I have not seen - pay hikes?
- Are the ministers pay going to follow suit?
- Has anybody's pay increase by so much a margin?
Like it or not, when the government gave the bonuses to the public, I have already prepared myself that the ministers' pay will be next.
Also, I've decided to remove the p65er blog link. It's going nowhere. Neither are my feedback or the public comments.
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