K-P budgets for tourism, sports slashed

PESHAWAR: Even with tourism stated to be one of the key areas for spurring the domestic economy, the provincial government has decided to slash budgetary allocations for sports, tourism, culture, archaeology and youth affairs of the province.

Easy loans sought for tourism industry

Documents available with The Express Tribune show that in the upcoming budget for the fiscal year 202-21, a paltry sum of Rs2.91 billion has been allocated for the sports, tourism, cultural, archaeology and youth affairs ministry.

This is a reduction of around Rs2.1 billion, down from the Rs5.9 billion which had been allocated for these sectors in the outgoing budget for the fiscal year 2019-20.

Even though the government had outlined the development of integrated tourism zones in the province last year, it has included a total of 13 new schemes in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Of these, five are for tourism and eight are for sports.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2020.