President Saakashvili claims he has had to shut off outdoor lighting around his palace to save money. (IPN.)

TBILISI, DFWatch — Georgia spends nearly USD 85 000 per day on its president, while the minimum amount of pension is USD 60 a month.

Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili said it on Wednesday as his government was discussing the 2013 draft budget, and the comment was clearly meant to justify a drastic reduction in the financing for President Saakashvili’s lavish lifestyle.

Saakashvili’s administration earlier announced that it would turn off the outdoor lighting around the presidential palace in response to the proposed cuts.

As the bill was prepared, the authors claimed that president and the government had too much unexplained expenses which should be reduced.

The prime minister yesterday explained that it costs USD 85 000 per day to have a president, which he says is very high. For this reason, the government does not plan to change the budget bill in the part which reduces financing for the president and his administration.

“We make the economy by reducing this financing, we manage to finance th esocial sector by reducing it,” he said. “To speak about government office example, 48 tons of oil was spent here, while now we only need 7.5 tons. Expenses were reduced five fold in other areas as well.”

The cabinet approved the budget bill at the second hearing on Wednesday.

“We have the third hearing ahead. Accordingly, there might be slight changes, but we agreed that next year’s budget will have different qualities. It will be of a different type, and I promise to the population that there will be a completely different economy,” the Prime Minister remarked.

The 2013 budget is USD 4.42 billion in size, which is USD 335 million more than in 2012.