Balochistan presents Rs465b deficit budget

Finance minister says Rs680m tax relief to be provided to businesses affected by Covid-19

QUETTA: The Balochistan Awami Party-led provincial government on Saturday unwrapped Rs465.528 billion budget for the next fiscal year 2020-21, with Rs64 billion allocated for the education sector, Rs48 billion for law and order and Rs38 billion for health. The Balochistan government is facing Rs87 billion deficit for upcoming expenditures.

Finance Minister Zahoor Ahmed Buledi presented the budget in the provincial assembly, saying that Rs309 billion has been allocated for non-developmental expenditures while more than Rs118 billion for developmental expenditures.

The budget proposes creating 6,840 new jobs in the public sector and provide tax relief of Rs680 million to the businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.



The Balochistan government has allocated 17% for education, 10% of the total budget for health and 9% for communications and works. The province will get Rs367.548 billion in revenue, which includes Rs302.95 billion from federal revenue and Rs49.945 billion from provincial revenue in the next financial year.

According to details, the volume of the budget is Rs465.528 billion of which non-development expenditure is estimated at Rs309.032 billion, provincial PSDP at 106.079 billion, volume of foreign-funded projects Rs12.201 billion, volume of federal funded projects Rs38.216 billion and next fiscal year budget deficit is likely to be Rs87.614 billion.

In the budget for the next financial year, apart from education, health, and communications and construction, 4.38% has been allocated for irrigation, 4.02% for municipalities, 3.56% for agriculture, 3.17% for Public Health Engineering, 2.19% for energy, 2.19% for sports and youth affairs, 1.49% for livestock, 1.30%, for mines and minerals, 0.77% for social welfare, 0.54% for industry, 0.48% for fisheries.

The revenue of the province is expected to be Rs367.548 billion during the financial year 2020-21 as the province will get 9.8% less amount from the federal government.



A total of 2,568 projects are earmarked in the PSDP, including 934 ongoing and 1,634 new schemes. Relief projects include Rs8 billion for dealing with coronavirus and disasters, Rs5 billion development programme for revenue generating districts.

An amount of Rs1.5 billion has been allocated for villages, Rs2 billion for tourism promotion, Rs3 billion for post-coronavirus relief programme for socio-economic improvement in the budget for the next financial year and Rs1 billion for Balochistan Civil Employees Health Insurance Scheme.

An amount of Rs2 billion has been set aside for the CM microfinance interest-free loans programme, Rs1 billion for CM low-cost housing interest-free loan scheme, Rs500 million for locust eradication, Rs1 billion for food security revolving fund, Rs2 billion for pension investment and Rs2 billion for the improvement of the coastal belt of the province for the promotion of tourism.

Speaker Abdul Quddus Bizenjo later postponed the Balochistan Assembly session till June 23.