Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Muzaffar Said Advocate has said that the provincial government has presented balance budget for the year 2017-18 in which maximum relief were provided to all sectors including the government employees.

Addressing a post budget press conference here, the Minister said government has distributed budget mainly in three major sectors ie development, welfare and administrative to ensure strict financial discipline besides expediting pace of economic development in the province.

The Minister said the government has proposed allocation of Rs .336.67 billion for welfare budget that was 56 percent of the total budget outlay of Rs. 603 billion carrying an increase of 14pc against current fiscal year. Likewise, he said Rs58.73billion was proposed for administrative budget 2017-18 carrying an increase of 18 percent against current fiscal year.

The Minister said special focus was made on development budget with allocation of Rs208 billion carrying a share of 34 pc of the total budget 2017-18 with major focus on uplift of socio-economic sectors, completion of ongoing projects and starting of new schemes. He said ADP of upcoming budget was 29 pc more than current fiscal year including foreign assistance of Rs82 billion. As many as Rs127.91billion were allocated for education, Rs49.27billion for health and Rs39.73b for police departments in budget 2017-18, he said, adding the government has set aside Rs127.91 billion including Rs115.92 billion for elementary and secondary education, Rs11.99billion for high education sector that was 18pc more than of the current financial year. As many as Rs49.27billion were earmarked for health sector with 31pc increase against current fiscal year besides an allocation of Rs1.85billion carrying an increase of seven percent against current fiscal year for women development and social welfare sectors.

The Minister said Rs2.25 billion for Technical Education and Human Resource Development, Rs720million for sports, culture and tourism, Rs4.35billion for agriculture, Rs2.37billion for environment and forests department, Rs6.61 for communication and works sectors, Rs53b for pension and Rs2.90 billion for subsidy in wheat were earmarked in the upcoming budget.

The government also earmarked Rs8billion for payment of mark up on loans besides Rs7 billion for return of external and internal loans, house building for the government employees and motorcycle advances.

The Minister said Rs126 billion were allocated for Provincial Development Program to complete 1632 projects including 1182 ongoing and 450 news schemes in budget 2017-18. Inspite of limited financial resources, he said the Government has provided maximum financial relief to government employees and pensioners by increasing their salaries and pension by 10 percent after merger of Adhoc Relief Allowance of 2010. “The government has decided to merge adhoc relief allowance 2010 in basic salaries and after its merger 10 percent adhoc relief allowance 2017 would be given to government employees,” he said.

The Minister said the Government would bear Rs16.50billion load due to increase of pension and salaries of the government employees.

The employees of BPS-5 is being exempted from reduction in 5pc house rent allowance and proposed to increase rate of daily allowance by 60percent while Ardali (Orderly Peon/messenger) allowance from Rs12000 to Rs14000.

The existing ratio of transfer and burial of deceased is being enhanced from Rs1600 to Rs4,800 and from Rs5000 to Rs15000 respectively, he said adding minimum wages is being increased from Rs14000 to Rs15000. The Minister said PTI led government has transferred Rs48billion to district government in last two years and a huge amount of Rs28 billion were allocated for district governments in budget 2017-18. He said revenue resources of KP were limited and the government was making efforts to enhance it.