K-P Assembly to begin budget debate today

PESHAWAR: The provincial assembly will start debating the budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 today (Monday) while the opposition has announced that it will table a cut-motion during the session.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Secretariat in a statement on Sunday said that the debate on the provincial budget will start on Monday, June 22, and will continue for two days.

After the two days of debate, the opposition benches will table their cut-motions on June 23. Debates on the cut motions is expected to continue for another two days.

On June 25, the treasury benches will vote on the cut-motions. They will also try and approve the finance bill for the fiscal year 2020-21 the same day.

On June 26, the provincial assembly will debate on the supplementary budget for the outgoing fiscal year of 2019-20, and on June 28, the provincial budget will be approved.

Meanwhile, the provincial government has increased the K-P Assembly’s budget under the heads of entertainment and gifts to Rs3 million. As a result, its total outlay has reached to Rs120 million.

Budgetary documents available with The Express Tribune show that the K-P government had allocated Rs9 million for gifts and entertainment last year. Despite its claims of austerity during the outgoing financial year, the provincial government led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had spent an additional million rupees under the head of entertainment and gifts.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2020.