PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday presented a Rs 2,119 billion budget for the new financial year, with proposals to increase government employees’ salaries by 10% and pensions by 7%.
Presenting the budget, Provincial Finance Minister Aftab Alam Khan said the government paid off Rs 49 billion in loans during the outgoing year, including Rs 18 billion in interest payments.
He said the previous government had presented a Rs 100 billion surplus budget. However, this year the province faced cuts from the federal government, including a Rs 42 billion reduction in NFC transfers and Rs 40 billion less for the merged districts’ current expenditures.
The minister said KP received Rs 90 billion less due to the federal government’s failure to meet its tax collection targets, while development funding from the centre also saw major cuts.
Aftab Alam announced an Annual Development Programme (ADP) worth Rs 547 billion, while total provincial expenditure is estimated at Rs 1,962 billion. The budget maintains a Rs 157 billion surplus.
The minimum monthly wage has been proposed to increase from Rs 36,000 to Rs 40,000. Disparity allowance for employees not receiving executive allowance is proposed to rise by 15% to 20%.
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The province is also facing a shortfall of Rs 267 billion under the NFC award. The federal government owes KP Rs 71 billion under net hydel profit and Rs 58 billion under oil and gas revenue.
The development budget includes 1,349 ongoing and 810 new schemes, with over Rs 177 billion to be funded through foreign aid and loans.
In the ADP, the highest share — 16% — has been allocated to road infrastructure. A total of Rs 53.64 billion will be spent on 583 road schemes.
For the health sector, Rs 27 billion have been allocated for 182 projects. In education, Rs 13 billion have been allocated for 96 primary and secondary education projects, while higher education will receive Rs 6.27 billion for 63 schemes.
The transport department will get Rs 1.28 billion for 10 projects, and Rs 8.88 billion will be spent on 51 new and ongoing sports schemes. The home department has been allocated Rs 6.99 billion for 68 security-related schemes.
The government will spend Rs 4.79 billion on 59 energy projects and Rs 7.25 billion on 46 agriculture schemes. Rs 45.06 billion have been set aside for district-level development.
For the first time, the budget for settled districts’ development has been increased by 30%, from Rs 120 billion to Rs 155 billion under the ADP Plus initiative.
Minister Aftab Alam said Rs 35 billion will be spent to complete priority projects on time. Rs 7 billion have been allocated for reform and governance initiatives.
Additional allocations include:
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Rs 2.86 billion for health
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Rs 700 million for minerals
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Rs 700 million for industries
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Rs 620 million for livestock
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Rs 550 million each for local government and tourism
