PESHAWAR: Finance Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Taimur Khan Jhagra on Friday presented the provincial budget for 2021-22 having a total outlay of Rs1.118 trillion.
While announcing a 25 percent increase in salaries of the government employees, the finance minister during the budget speech said that an increase in pensions of widows by 100 percent is also proposed in the next year’s budget.
“We have also increased house rent for government employees by seven percent,” he said adding that the government has already saved Rs 12 billion under an initiative to extend the time period of early retirement.
The minimum wage for labourers has been increased to Rs21,000.
The provincial government also announced a 10 percent ad-hoc relief allowance for all employees and a 20 percent increase in the functional or sectoral allowance for all employees not drawing a special allowance.
The finance minister said that the government is providing health facilities to the 7.2 million population of the province through health cards and Rs23 billion would be spent on the facility in the next year.
“The current expenditure is estimated at Rs747 billion next year,” Taimur Khan Jhagra said adding that Rs371 million have been earmarked for tribal areas including Rs100 billion for the uplift projects.
He said that the province would receive Rs475 billion in terms of tax collected by the federal government while Rs57.20 billion would be received under grant owing to the terrorism-affected status of the province.
“Rs75 billion will be received as profit for generation of power through windmills,” he said adding the province would also receive Rs19.90 billion under federal PSDP.
Earlier in the day, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) cabinet headed by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan approved the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2021-22, proposing a hike in salaries by 25 per cent for government employees.
The budget proposals were presented before the provincial cabinet for discussion and after its approval from the forum, KP CM Mahmood Khan also signed it.
The overall outlay for the KP budget is estimated at Rs1.118 trillion with Rs316 billion earmarked for the development portfolio. An amount of Rs250 billion was earmarked for the ‘Bandobasti’ districts of the province.
Earlier, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) cabinet headed by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Friday approved the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2021-22, proposing a hike in salaries by 25 per cent for government employees
According to details, the budget proposals were presented before the provincial cabinet for discussion and after its approval from the forum, KP CM Mahmood Khan also signed it.
The overall outlay for the KP budget is estimated at Rs1.118 trillion with Rs316 billion earmarked for the development portfolio. An amount of Rs250 billion was earmarked for the ‘Bandobasti’ districts of the province.
According to a previous report, an increase of 25 percent in the salaries of the government employees from grade 1 to 19 has been proposed in the KP budget, while 10 pc raise has been proposed for the government employees of above grade 19.
The minimum wage of workers would be increased to Rs21,000. The government has allocated funds for Rescue 1122 new ambulances while the government will also announce the recruitment of new teachers in the budget 2021-22.
It is pertinent to mention here that besides the Centre, the Punjab and Sindh provinces have already tabled their budgets before the respective assemblies.
The Balochistan government will be presenting its budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 today. The budget outlay will be Rs500 billion for the new fiscal year while the development funding will be over Rs138 billion, besides other expenditures of more than Rs370 billion also planned for the next fiscal year. NNI
