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Queen Elizabeth

LONDON. — Queen Elizabeth is set to be given a $72 000 a week pay rise under a formula devised centuries ago, an official report revealed in Britain Tuesday.

The Queen’s income is based on a percentage of money earned by the Crown Estate, one of the wealthiest real estate owners in Britain.

In its annual report issued in London, the Crown Estate disclosed that it had delivered a record $405 million to the Treasury in the past year.

Unless the current formula is altered it will mean that in 2017 the Queen’s pay packet will be almost $61 million, 6.5 percent higher than the $57 million she is receiving this year, and representing a 57 percent increase over what was paid in 2012.

The sum is worked out by paying to the Queen 15 percent of the surplus made by the Royal Estate, paid two years in arrears.

The figure can only be changed by three royal trustees, the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and an official Sir Alan Reid, who has the title of the Queen’s Keeper of the Privy Purse.

The three are currently in the process of a review which could affect the amount due to the monarch next year, a government official said Tuesday.

A senior spokesman at Buckingham Palace said Tuesday that it was too early to speculate on what the result would be or what amount the Queen would receive for 2017-18. The report also show the monarchy cost British taxpayers $53.5 million in 2015-16, with more than $21 million spent on the upkeep of royal households such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, as well as other royal households and buildings. — Xinhua.