K-P plans surplus budget for next fiscal

Over the past year, the K-P govt has worked to enhance revenues from its own resources: Jhagra

PESHAWAR: The provincial government has decided to fashion a budget for the next fiscal year which is similar to the last budget with a surplus of Rs20-Rs25 billion and one which is ‘less dependent’ on the federal government for financial support.

This was disclosed by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra recently. Jhagra, who was elected to the provincial assembly for the first time last July on a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) but brings with him the experience of working for international financial organisations, stated that for the ongoing fiscal year 2018-19, they had presented a provincial budget of Rs648 billion.

Of this, he said that they expected to spend around Rs618 billion. At the same time, he said that they expect to raise revenues of around Rs648 billion, leaving them with a surplus of around Rs30 billion.

He added that over the past year, the provincial government had worked to enhance revenues from its own resources while trying to minimise its reliance on the federal government for cash grants.

“This is why we have decided to present a surplus budget this time [the fiscal year 2019-20] as well,” the provincial finance minister asserted.

Officials in the financial division of the provincial government have confirmed to the Express Tribune that it has decided in principle to table a surplus budget for next term while previous, PTI government led by Pervez Khattak had presented a balanced budget for its five years in power.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2019.