Punjab govt presents Rs4.48tr budget

Provincial assembly proceedings marred by opposition’s protest

LAHORE:

The Punjab government on Monday presented a surplus budget of over Rs4.48 trillion for the fiscal year 2023-4 with expected income of over Rs3.331 trillion, including Rs2.706 trillion from the federal divisible resources.

The budget was presented in the provincial assembly amid strong protest of the opposition lawmakers who created pandemonium and tore the copies of the document.

The opposition members said they would not let the government pass the budget that the caretaker set-up had wasted.

As Finance Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman started the budget speech, the opposition lawmakers stood up while chanting slogans and then tried to move towards the speaker’s dais, but later confined themselves to their seats.

The minister said the Punjab government is expecting over Rs2.706 trillion through the federal divisible pool under the NFC award. In provincial tax revenue, the government is expecting over Rs625 billion with a 25 per cent increase over the last year, out of which over Rs240 billion would come from the Punjab Revenue Authority after a 26% increase, Rs99 billion from the Board of Revenue with a 4% increase and Rs45 billion from the excise department with a 5% increase.    

The government is expecting over Rs231 billion in non-tax revenue with a 42% increase.

In the current fiscal year, the government allocated over Rs513 billion for salaries, Rs392 billion for pensions and Rs627 billion for local governments.

The minister said the government was not imposing any new tax in the light of the collection of sales tax on services.

He said Rs655 billion had been allocated for the development programme, including 36% allocation for the social sector, 39% for infrastructure, 8% percent for production, 4% for the services sector and 13% for other initiatives and specials measures.

The government plans to initiate an IT Infrastructure Investment Programme with Rs4 billion. It will establish five IT Cities in five years under a vision of Digital Punjab, in addition to Rs1 billion for WiFi connectivity with a free facility for students.

It will also launch the Punjab Dastak Programme with Rs250 million wherein citizens will get 43 government services at their doorstep.

The social sector budget includes allocations for education, health, water supply and sanitation, women development, and sports and youth affairs. An amount of Rs9 billion has been earmarked for the WASAs and other departments.

The government earmarked Rs595 billion for the education sector, including Rs537 billion for non-development expenditure, which is 26% of the total non-development budget. An amount of Rs57 billion has been set aside for development of the education sector, which is 9% of the total development budget. An amount of over Rs44 billion was allocated for school education and Rs9 billion for higher education.

Another Rs1 billion has been allocated for the laptop scheme.

For health sector, the government is going to allocate Rs473 billion for non-development expenditure and Rs115 billion for development.

The government announced a plan to establish a state of the art Nawaz Sharif Institute of Cancer Treatment and Research in Lahore with an allocation of Rs500 million for the last three months of the ongoing fiscal year. Another allocation of Rs10 billion was made for the Nawaz Sharif Institute of Cardiology.

It plans launch an air ambulance service with Rs447 million for victims of accidents on motorways.

The government allocated Rs45 billion for the Sehat Card programme.

In addition, Rs1.4 billion was allocated for the welfare of the minorities and Rs79.12 billion for agriculture.