KP finance minister presents provincial budget worth Rs1332bn 

Peshawar: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra on Monday presented a provincial budget worth over Rs1332 billion. 

Addressing the provincial assembly in Peshawar, Taimur Jhagra said Rs208 billion were allocated for the merged districts and Rs185 billion for the settled districts. 

As per budget 2022-2023, the government employees may get a 16% raise in salaries as Rs447.9 billion has been allocated for salaries while the pensioners will get a 15% hike as the pension bill has been put at Rs107 billion.

During the session, the minister announced that the public sector employees will "work from home" on Fridays to mitigate the impact of fuel prices and avoid unnecessary waste of fuel resources--saving upto RS2 to Rs5 billion on annual basis. 

The budget documents showed that over Rs85 billion in revenue has been achieved from provincial taxes while Rs93 billion in foreign aid has been included in the budget under the head of Foreign Development Assistance.

The provincial tax and non-tax revenue target is set at Rs85 billion. 

Moreover, the KP government plans to spend Rs8.3 billion under Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) during the fiscal year 2022-23.

As per outlay for 2022-23, consists of more than Rs900 billion for non-development expenditures while over Rs400 billion have been allocated for development-related expenditures.

The provincial finance minister said Rs25 billion will be spent on Sahulat Health Card. The government employees will also avail OPD services in the Sehat Card and five different packages will be introduced for them, elevating the limit upto Rs10 million.

Sharing further details of initiatives in the budget, Saleem said that treatment for bone marrow transplant, thalassemia, advanced-stage cancer, and the hearing aid will also be added to Sehat card.

“Four new medical colleges will be established in Dir, Buner, Charsadda, Haripur,” he said, adding that youngsters will also be given loans worth around Rs25 billion.

The provincial minister added that the government has produced 2.1 million job opportunities in the province, adding that: “World Bank data also proved that unemployment remained lowest in past three years".

For Anti-terrorism operations, an amount of Rs68.50 billion has been allocated.  

KP government has allocated Rs26 billion for Insaf Food Card under which the people will be given subsidies on food items.

It has estimated to receive Rs31 billion from oil and gas royalties and surcharges (straight transfers from the federal government) and Rs61.9 billion in Net Hydel Profit (NHP).

He said scholarships worth Rs34 billion will be given to students of higher education levels.

The government has reserved Rs227,087 million for elementary and secondary education and Rs34,191 million for higher education. 

For agriculture, the provincial government has allocated Rs29,458 million, while Rs 29,203 million for energy and power. 

Furthermore, Rs4,191 million has been allocated for the environment and Rs 6,433 million for forestry.

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has termed the provincial budget for financial year 2022-23 as a pro-poor and largest-ever budget in the history of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with an outlay of Rs 1332 billion.

In a statement issued here on Monday, the chief minister added that all the sectors have been fully focused in the budget which on implementation would bring about a new era of development in the province and bring visible positive change in the lives of the masses.

The chief minister said that social sector has been the top most priority of PTI government from the very first day adding that budget of education, health and other social sectors has also been increased in the annual budget.