Daily Times

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday unveiled a tax free budget for the next fiscal year 2021-22 with a total outlay of Rs1.118 trillion.

Presenting the budget in the provincial assembly, KP Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that Rs919 billion have been allocated for the settled districts while Rs199 billion are allocated for the newly merged districts of the province.

He said the province will receive Rs475.6 billion from the federal taxes and Rs57.2 billion from the federal divisible pool for war on terror. The finance minister said Rs371 billion have been allocated for the Annual Development Programme (ADP) which is a record.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government announced a 10 percent ad hoc relief allowance in the salaries of provincial government employees and 10 percent increase in pension in the new fiscal year budget.

The provincial finance minister also announced an increase of 20 percent functional or sectoral allowance for the employees up to grade-19 who are not receiving any special allowances, besides seven percent increase in the house rent allowance for employees’ not availing government residence. The minimum wage for labourers has been increased to Rs21,000.

Over Rs 142 billion have been earmarked for the promotion of health facilities in the province, besides establishment of four big hospitals at a cost of Rs40 billion under public-private partnership.

The finance minister said that the government is providing health facilities to the 7.2 million population of the province through health cards and Rs23 billion would be spent on the facility in the next year.

Taimur Saleem Jhagra said a medical insurance plan has also been introduced in the new budget for provincial government employees.

He said a total of Rs206 billion have been allocated for the Elementary and Secondary Education department and Rs27 billion for the higher education department.

Winding up the speech, Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said despite the financial crisis and prevalence of the global pandemic of Covid-19, the government has presented a public-friendly tax-free budget.

The finance minister also presented a supplementary budget for the outgoing financial year 2020-21 amounting to Rs78.84 billion.

Earlier the provincial cabinet in its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan approved the budget for the next fiscal year.