Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tax free budget for the next fiscal year with a historic outlay of eleven-hundred and eighteen billion rupees was presented on Friday.
Presenting the budget in the Provincial Assembly in Peshawar today, Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said nine-hundred and nineteen billion rupees have been allocated for the settled districts while one-hundred and ninety-nine billion rupees for the newly merged districts of the province.
He said the province will receive four hundred and seventy-five point six billion rupees from the federal taxes and fifty-seven point two billion rupees from the federal divisible pool for war on terror.
The Finance Minister said three-hundred and seventy-one billion rupees have been allocated for the Annual Development Programme which is a record.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government announced ten percent adhoc relief allowance in the salaries of provincial government employees and ten percent increase in pension in the new fiscal year budget.
The provincial Finance Minister also announced an increase of twenty percent functional or sectoral allowance for the employees up to grade-19 who are not receiving any special allowances besides seven percent increase in the house rent allowance for employees’ not availing government residence.
Over one-hundred and forty-two billion rupees have been earmarked for the promotion of health facilities in the province besides establishment of four big hospitals at a cost of forty billion rupees under public-private partnership.
Taimur Saleem Jhagra said a medical insurance plan has also been introduced in the new budget for provincial government employees.
He said a total of two-hundred and six billion rupees have been allocated for the Elementary and Secondary Education department and twenty-seven billion rupees for the higher education department.
Winding up the speech, Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said despite the financial crisis and prevalence of the global pandemic of covid-19, the government has presented a public-friendly tax-free budget.
The Finance Minister also presented a supplementary budget for the financial year 2020-21 amounting to 78.84 billion rupees.
Earlier the provincial cabinet in its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan approved the budget for the next fiscal year.
Source: Radio Pakistan