K-P all set to unveil Rs800b budget

Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra to present the budget at 3pm today

PESHAWAR: The provincial government is all set to present the budget for the next fiscal year 2019-20, worth around Rs800 billion in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

In what will be the sixth budget for the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government — after it won a landmark second, consecutive term in the July 25 general elections, the government aims to set an outlay of Rs209 billion for development projects in the country.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra will be presenting his first full budget after having presented a budget for a partial fiscal year last October. The budget session is expected to commence at 3pm.

Even though the government and the parliamentary opposition reached an agreement for a smooth budget session, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members of the K-P Assembly have expressed their intention to stage some sort of protest over the arrests of their leaders.

According to the K-P Finance Department, the budget will have a total outlay of over Rs800 billion. Of this, Rs426 billion are non-development funds while Rs209 billion have been set for the annual development programme (ADP).

Moreover, Rs163 billion have been set aside for the seven newly-merged tribal districts of the province. Of this, Rs83 billion have been allocated for development schemes. The rest of the money will be spent on non-development expenses such as salaries, utility bills and payments to internally displaced people (IDPs).

The provincial government aims to receive Rs533 billion from the federal government while it also aims to raise some Rs56 billion from its own sources. It further hopes to receive Rs87.5 billion as foreign assistance, whether in the form of grants (Rs36 billion) or loans (Rs50.45 billion).

Of this, more than Rs29.9 billion in loans are being provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the construction of the Bus Rapid Transit Project (BRT) in Peshawar.

The province also expects to get Rs47 billion in anti-terror funds from the centre.

The provincial government also hopes to reduce the throw-forward from the current estimate of 5.9 years to 4.5 years by allocating Rs165 billion towards it.

Of the development funds, Rs121 billion will be allocated by the province and will include Rs85 billion have been reserved for provincial government projects while Rs36.5 billion will be for local government projects.

The major projects the government intends to build in the next fiscal year include the construction of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s low-cost housing scheme Naya Housing Project in Peshawar and Hangu. Further, the provincial government aims to expand coverage of its Sehat Insaf Card across the province including the tribal areas. Moreover, youngsters will be provided with interest-free loans to set up their businesses, setting up a medical college in the newly-merged tribal district of Kurram. A road will be built to connect Tull to Mir Ali in North Waziristan, apart from building drinking water supply schemes in the tribal districts.

Under the Billion Tree Tsunami project, Green Waziristan and Green Bajaur projects are also included.

Further, a new hostel block will be built in Peshawar to accommodate the 24 lawmakers from the newly-merged tribal districts who are due to be elected in July. The existing hostel blocks will also be repaired and renovated.

Moreover, 200 basic health units will be upgraded to comprehensive health units.

Following on from the federal government, the provincial government aims to cut the salaries of cabinet members by 10 per cent. However, salaries of government employees up to basic pay scale (BPS) grade 16 are expected to increase by 10 per cent. For employees in BPS-17 to BPS-19, salaries will be increased by five per cent. Salaries will not be increased for senior government officers.

The minimum wage will be set at Rs17,500.

For the education sector, a total of Rs162 billion are being allocated

Moreover, Rs7.39 billion have been proposed for 69 projects of the local government department in which 53 ongoing projects and 16 new projects will be funded.

For the health sector, the provincial government has proposed Rs11.69 billion for the execution of 115 development projects, including 44 new and 72 ongoing schemes.

In the education sector, the department has proposed the construction of 119 new schools besides the status of primary schools to 22 Maktab schools and upgrading 52 schools. The education department has sought Rs1.86 billion for the provision of scholarships to 500,000 girls in the province to boost their enrolment and retention rates. The department said that around Rs7billion have been distributed amongst some 2.4 million girls students across the province under the scholarship programme.

Even though the budget document proposes lessening the dependence on foreign aid for new health schemes in the fiscal year 2019-20, the provincial government has earmarked Rs1.5 billion in foreign aid for completing ongoing health projects. No foreign aid fund has been allocated for the 44 new projects.

The department has also proposed slashing sales tax down from 15% to 7%. The provincial government, though, hopes to widen the tax net and boost net revenues. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2019.