Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said has termed the fiscal budget for year 2016-17 as pro-poor and growth oriented, saying that no new tax was imposed on poor masses in the budget. The budget, which is referred to as ‘poor-friendly’ by KP Finance Minister Muzaffar Said, allocated a greater portion of funds to health and education.

While speaking at post-budget press conference flanked by provincial Finance Secretary and other high officials, here on Wednesday, Muzaffar Said told that the budget had been divided to satisfy tasks pertaining to welfare, development and administration.

Of the total volume of Rs. 505 billion, he said Rs. 161 billion has been allocated for Annual Development Program (ADP) for the upcoming fiscal period. He said enormous funds of Rs.38 billion had earmarked for health and Rs.102 billion for elementary and secondary education.

In the next financial, he said the current expenditures has been estimated over Rs.294 billion for welfare, which is 61 per cent of the total budget, reflecting an increase of 12 per cent as compared to the outgoing financial period.

Similarly, he said Rs.497.8 billion had been allocated for the administrative side, which was 10 per cent of the total budget, showing an increase of 3 percent as compared to the current year. In the budget, he said a sum of Rs.161 billion has been allocated for Annual Development Program (ADP) for next financial year, which is 32 per cent of the total budget, reflecting a decrease of 8 per cent, as compared to outgoing fiscal budget.

The Minister said the total volume of Provincial Development Program is Rs.161 billion, including Rs.36 billion in foreign aid. He said the actual ADP has been estimated at Rs.125 billion, of which Rs. 12 billion were raised through bank loans. He said ADP comprises 1,516 development schemes, including 1,237 ongoing and 279 new ones, saying that the government’s main focus is on ongoing development projects while finalising the Annual Development Program for the fiscal period 2016-17.

Breaking it up by sector, the minister said over Rs.111 billion had been allocated for the education sector, of which Rs.102 billion was for the promotion of Elementary and Secondary Education (E&S) and Rs.9.50 billion for higher education, reflecting an increase of 15 per cent as compared to outgoing financial year. Similarly, he said for the health sector, a huge chunk of Rs.38 billion had been earmarked, up 28 per cent from last year. He said Rs.1.69 billion had allocated for social welfare, special education, and women’s development, reflecting an increase of 23 per cent as compared with the outgoing financial year. Rs. 40 billion had been allocated for pensions, reflecting an increase of 11 per cent as compared to the outgoing financial period. He said a sum of Rs. 2.90 billion has set aside for wheat subsidy, while Rs.8.8 billion has been allocated for markup on loans, reflecting increase of 15 per cent as compared to outgoing financial period.

He said an amount of Rs.11 billion has been allocated for payment of internal and external loans along with housing scheme for government employees and motorcycles advances. He said a sum of Rs. 112 billion has been estimated for local government salaries, while Rs.17. 44 billion has been proposed for other expenditure of the local governments. Similarly, he said Rs. 560 million was reserved for Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMAs), whereas Rs. 500 million allocated for local councils.

The minister said the provincial government has announced salaries and pension increases by 10 per cent, which would have financial impact of Rs.14.2 billion on provincial kitty, and added that no new tax was proposed in the budget.