Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Muzaffar Said on Wednesday presented Rs 603 billion tax-free budget for fiscal year 2017-2018 amid walkout by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members of the provincial assembly.

Delivering his budget speech, Muzaffar Said braved hooting and tearing of copies of the speech by the PML-N members who demanded that the finance minister do not present the budget as his name had appeared in the Bank of Khyber corruption scandal.

Unveiling the budgetary proposals, the finance minister said that Rs 395 billion out of the total budget amount will be used for current expenditures, an increase of 15% from last year’s allocation. The minister said an amount of Rs 208 billion, which is 34% of the total volume, has been set aside for the annual development programme (ADP). The proposed amount is 29% more as compared to last year’s. The amount also included Rs 82 billion foreign aid that will be spent on 1,182 running and 450 new schemes. He said that the government will seek Rs 10 billion loan to meet the deficit for ADP as it aims to swiftly complete all running projects.

With 18% increase, education sector will get Rs 127.91 billion out of which Rs 115.92 billion will be allocated to primary and secondary education while 11.99 billion will be used for higher education. The minister said that Rs 49.27 billion have been allocated to health sector, 31% higher than the last year’s allocation. With an increase of 21%, KP police will get Rs 39.73 billion for fiscal year 2017-18.

An amount of Rs 6.61 billion has been reserved for Communication and Works Department for repairs of roads, bridges and government properties.

The budget allocates Rs 2.37 billion for Environment and Forestation, an increase of 19% as compared to last year’s, while Rs 72 million have been allocated for Sports, Culture and Tourism.

An amount of Rs 4.35 billion and 3.73 billion has been allocated for Agriculture and Irrigation respectively, while Rs 2.25 billion have been set aside for technical education and Rs 1.85 billion for Social Welfare and Special Education for Women.

Interestingly, Rs 1 million token allocation has been made for China-KP Economic Cooperation Road Show despite the government’s claim of signing of many agreements for mega development projects in the province. The government claims that 84 projects under the agreement are worth Rs 2452.18 billion, making the projects worth four times the total budget of the province.