Daily Times

The budget of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province for the next fiscal year 2021-22 with an outlay of over Rs1,000 billion will be presented before the provincial assembly on June 18 (Friday).

According to the salient features of the KP budget, the Annual Development Plan (ADP) for the province has been proposed at Rs205 billion for the next fiscal year. An increase of 25 percent in the salaries of the government employees from grade 1 to 19 has been proposed in the budget, while a 10 percent raise has been proposed for the government employees of above grade 19.

The KP government has proposed a mega agriculture development package for budget 2021-22, focusing on increasing horticultural land, meat and poultry production and assistance to farmers through the Kisan (farmers) card under the Prime Minister National Agriculture Emergency Programme (NAEP) amounting to over Rs309 billion.

Under the package, the government has decided to launch special projects related to strengthening of livestock, fisheries and food security programmes, besides providing assistance to farmers under Kisan Cards to be issued by August this year under the Agriculture Transformation Plan (ATP) approved by the chief minister. Under ATP, 150 moisture meters would be installed to ascertain the level of moisture in lands across KP to bring maximum areas under agriculture cover.

The Prime Minister’s Save the Calf, Poultry programmes and Feedlot Fattening projects would continue and under Save the Calf programme, about 380,000 male buffalo’s calves would be fattened in the country including 30,000 in KP to increase meat production.

Around 287 trout fish farms mostly in Malakand and Hazara Divisions would be established with an estimated cost of Rs1286.914 million to utilise its abundance of cold water reservoirs, lakes and favourable climate conditions mostly suited for trout fish farming.

The Sindh government presented its budget on Tuesday while Punjab presented its budget on Monday with a Rs196 billion allocation for South Punjab and a Rs370 billion for the health sector.

Presenting the Punjab budget with a total outlay of Rs2,653 billion, provincial Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht announced that the PTI government, despite all difficulties, is raising the development budget by 86 percent to Rs560 billion.