Balochistan Assembly approves Rs229.67 billion budget

QUETTA: Balochistan assembly on Wednesday approved the provincial budget of over Rs229.67 billion for the fiscal year 2015-16.

The total outlay of the development budget is Rs54.55 billion while non-development expenditure is estimated at over Rs175 billion.

The session was chaired by Deputy Speaker Abdul Quddus Bizenjo on Wednesday.

Advisor to Finance Minister Mir Khalid Langov presented 54 requests of funds for the non-development sector, which were also approved by the assembly.

Read: Balochistan presents deficit budget of Rs243bn

The budget drew criticism from economists and opposition parties as the government has failed to improve the revenue generation despite the fifth year of NFC award. The complete documents of the budget were not shared with the media presumably following the fear that their flaws and lack of planning would get media attention.

The Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) has strongly condemned the act of keeping the budget documents secret.