Daily Times

Leader of the Opposition Dr Ibabullah while starting debate on Budget Session for financial year 2024-25, the Speaker Babar Salim Swati was in chair Monday criticized that the incumbent KP government passed first two budgets of the caretaker government and the current budget was this assembly’s own budget but nothing for people of the province.

Dr Ibad raised question that for the first time in history, the province broke the tradition and presented the budget before the federation. He said that the budget of the province depended on the revenue received from the Federation up to 92 percent.

The current budget was nothing but a political stunt, he added. The opposition leader said that it was important to know the motives behind presenting the budget so quickly and then passing it. Dr Ibad expressed that the budget was the most important document regarding expenditure and revenue of any province.

He observed that health, education, IT, Mines and Mineral departments had been fully ignored and nothing for ongoing developmental schemes and no powers had been given to local bodies. “Earlier, 84 percent of the 2023-24 budget was dependent on federal funding while more than 84 percent of the current budget is to be met from the federal government,” he added.

He said that the province did not know how much to get from federation in various fields including NSC. The province’s own revenue was Rs 93 billion, while the revenue received from the federation was more than Rs 1200 billion, adding out of Rs 1200 billion, more than 1100 billion was to be found in the fight against terrorism, levies and other sectors, Dr Ibad informed the House.

“We don’t know what has been written in the budget to the province as the current budget consists only of assumptions,” he added. “The province expected Rs 91.1 billion in the war on terror last year but got Rs 85.7 billion,” If the Chief Minister’s KP style is aggressive, how can it be expected to get all these benefits from federation, Dr Ibad said.

Leader of the Opposition Dr Ibadullah said that in the current budget, the expenses of the province in the next fiscal year were 63 percent higher, Minister of Finance tell from where will they get it? Maulana Lutfur Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Lutfur Rehman said that for the first time, the provincial budget was presented before the federal budget which was strange. He said that the sad thing was that the budget of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa might be passed before the federal budget was presented.

He said that it would be good if this budget was canceled and presented with real figures after the federal budget. He said that unfortunately, the government could not fulfill its goals in the last ten years in this province. He said that the expenditure had not been incurred in the budget of the last financial year, so why was the supplementary budget presented? He said that there was a need to form a committee against this irresponsible behavior as the debts of the province were increasing enormously.

He said the economy of the province was stagnant and there was no increase in the revenue of the province. Unfortunately, no serious steps had been taken to increase the revenue of the province, Lutfur Rehman added. Ihsanullah Miankhel of PPP, said that allocation of 10 billion rupees for Chashma Lift Canal in DI Khan was welcome and good initiative but unfortunately out of these money for this project, allocated only Rs 2 billion. He said that Rs 3 billion had been allocated for non-productive projects like BRT.

He said that BRT Phase would not be allowed to start until the Chashma Lift Canal Project was started. “The announcement for DI Khan Motorway is being welcome so the government should inform about buying or planning to buy land for DI Khan Motorway,” said Miankhel. Due to non-availability of water, more than one-third of the land was inactive in DI Khan, said PPP Member of assembly. Due to lack of funds for construction and maintenance, all the tube wells of DI Khan were inactive, Ihsanullah Mian Khel said.

Parliamentary leader of ANP Arbab Usman said that how could a province which was practically bankrupt, presented a surplus budget. He said that the production of wheat in our province was 9 maunds per acre, which could be increased to 22 maunds.

By spending money on research, we can increase the exports of this province, Arbab Usman said. Doctors were moving from government hospitals to private hospitals, Arbab Usman added. Earlier, Minister Finance Aftab Alam moved Finance Bill, for Financial year 2024-25. The House also unanimously passed a resolution to reduce fare from Peshawar Saddar to Board Bazar. The speaker adjourned the proceedings till May 28, at 2pm despite public holiday of request of Minister Finance Aftab Alam.