Money matters; FY 2015-16’s budget increased by 17%

PESHAWAR:

The budget announced by the government on Monday for fiscal year 2015-16 – Rs488 billion – is 17% higher than the ongoing year’s outlay of Rs404 billion.

Of the total Rs488 billion outlay, Rs314 billion has been allocated for current expenditure and Rs174 billion for development expenditure.

The money coming in

In 2015-16, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government expects to get Rs250 billion from federal tax assignments, Rs30 billion for the war against terrorism, Rs19 billion from direct transfers in lieu of royalties on gas and crude oil, gas development surcharge and excise duty on natural gas.

A whopping Rs70 billion has been included in other federal grants/transfers for the next year. However under this very same head, only Rs15 billion were received by the K-P government in 2014-15.

The province’s own revenue receipts are expected to be Rs54 billion, which include Rs22 billion in tax and Rs32 billion in non-tax receipts. This figure is Rs24 billion more than the ongoing year’s provincial receipts.

Other revenue sources include, general capital receipt of around Rs15 billion and foreign loans/grants to the tune of Rs32.8 billion.

The education budget for 2015-16, as a percentage of the overall budget, has been reduced by almost 3% as compared to 2014-15. Elementary and Secondary Education department has been allocated Rs104.2 billion, while higher education has allocated Rs15 billion. In all, the education sector is to get Rs119.2 billion – 24% of the total Rs488 billion outlay.

In the ongoing year, the revised estimated budget for E&SE stands at Rs96 billion and Rs11.9 billion for higher education; bringing the the revised estimates for education in 2014-2015 to Rs107.9 billion– 27% of the total budget outlay of Rs397.7 billion.

The writer is the executive director at CGPA

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2015.