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The sworn income statement of José Mujica, Uruguay’s new president, makes interesting reading – especially after Britain’s recent MP expenses scandal.

They show that the blunt-talking 75-year-old former leftist rebel, who was imprisoned for 14 years under his country’s dictatorship, has a personal fortune of just $2,000.

The sections for properties and shares on the statement, filed according to law, are all scored through and the debts sections are also blank.

Mr Mujica, who turns up to all official events in casual dress and does not appear to own a tie, lists his only asset as a 1987 VW Beetle, valued at $1,960. Media reports that he bought it in 2004 but failed to pay tax on it until 2010, and when he did, the bill was some $1,500 – almost as much as the car is worth.

The president’s home is in his the name of his wife, Lucía Topolansky, also a former rebel who was also imprisoned. “We don’t have bank accounts. We’re old-fashioned,” she was quoted in media reports as saying.

Mr Mujica earns 227,800 pesos ($11,900) a month as president, but donates 70 per cent of it to his party, political movement and to a government housing plan.

He and his wife have reluctantly had to curtail their walks near their home since Mr Mujica became president, but still his down-home style persists. He has been seen eating and drinking a coffee in Montevideo cafes without heavy security and his foreign minister goes to work on the bus.

“Just tell the world we’re different,” he told AFP in March, shortly after taking office, when he was spotted having lunch in a local bar.