FY 2016-2017: Pindi education board okays Rs1.32b budget

RAWALPINDI: The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Rawalpindi, on Thursday approved a Rs1,322.3 million budget for the year 2016-2017.

The board has estimated its total income at Rs1,003.832 million against an estimated expenditure of Rs1,322.300 million, with a deficit of Rs318.468 million.

The board authorities expect to bridge the deficit up to Rs3.9 million during the current fiscal year by pooling from other resources.

The BISE also has an open balance of Rs912.331 million at its disposal.

The BISE like other examination boards of the Punjab has been facing financial crunch after the provincial government stopped boards from collecting registration fee from regular students in 2011.

A senior official in the BISE said that the board had been generating its income from its own resources.



He said that the major chunk of income of the board comes from registration and affiliation fee of private schools and their students.

The official said that other sources of income include profits from deposits the board had made in different banks.

He said that they were currently working on different plans to generate more revenue for the board to meet ever increasing expenditure of the board including salaries of board employees and pensioners in line with the raise they get annually.

The official said that the board had also jacked up payment for teachers engaged for checking of examination papers.

The BISE Secretary, Rana Javaid, said that though the budget was in deficit the board had reduced the shortfall when compared to previous years.

He noted that the raise in salaries and pensions added extra financial burden on the board.

Javaid said that the board was trying to put a cap on its routine expenditures to further reduce the annual deficit.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2016.