K-P assembly session: ‘Change in finance bill will hike inflation’

Educational institutions to be equipped with solar energy, says minister

PESHAWAR: Opposition in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly has criticised modification in the finance bill saying the new taxes that are being imposed on the K-P masses will increase inflation and also affect economic activities in province.

K-P Finance Minister Taimur Salim Jhagra rejected the opposition’s claims and added that the government has imposed direct taxes on the masses, and heavily decreased indirect taxation. He also announced that the government intends on including Rs0.8 million from the taxation into the health insurance programme.

While expressing their views on the last day of budget debate, the opposition members have said that through the new taxation system, the burden of inflation will hinder the growth of the economy of the province and also affect the purchasing power of common people.



Since 1947 the province carried a debt worth Rs15 billion, but from 2013 to 2018 the debt swelled to Rs515 billion. The government has not clarified how they will repay the debt and Rs9 billion worth of interest to national and international aid agencies this year, the opposition members said.

The opposition benches criticised the Minister of Local Government Shahram Khan Tarkai for allocating funds of Rs1 billion for Swabi district and asked for a similar amount in the development budget for their districts irrespective of political affiliations.

While addressing the assembly Provincial Education Minister Ziaullah Bangash said that despite the constraints, the government has increased the education budget from Rs136 billion to Rs167 billion.

The government decided to arrange an open court in schools, to address issues faced by parents, teachers and students in the province and is going to start from the least developed district, Kohistan this month, the education minister said.

“We have decided not to build new schools this year, but to instead, upgrade and complete on-going projects in the province. We will also equip education institutions with solar energy,” the education minister said.

Senior Minister Atif Khan said in his speech that the government has allocated funds for on-going projects and has planned to include Peshawar Circular-train and Chashma Canal project in the next financial year as well as developing 15 sites for tourism in K-P.

In the concluding speech the Provincial Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that the government has decreased the ratio of indirect taxation in the form of GST, and tried to increase direct taxation on people from relatively more affluent segments of society.

He said that the PTI government has decided to include 0.8 million in the health insurance scheme and soon 70 percent of masses of K-P will have free health services.



“We knew that our province has a debt of over Rs500 billion and had decided in the cabinet meeting that ministers and advisers of the government would not allocate discretionary funds, but funds will be used for collective benefits of the masses,” Jhagra said.

The government has plan to used Rs100 billion of funds for the tribal district (formerly FATA) for its structure and institutional building and tribal districts will not be neglected in the health, education and development projects either, he added.

Jhagra further informed that the government has initiated interest free loans for youth of the province to provide new business opportunities for the new generation and allocated Rs5 billion for this scheme. The government is trying to create up to 19,327 jobs in the next financial year.

The K-P Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ghani has suspended the session until Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2018.