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  • Oct 17th, 2018
  • Comments Off on Punjab unveils Rs 2026.51 billion budget for eight months
Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht on Tuesday presented Rs 2026.51 billion budget for the remaining eight months of FY 2018-19 amid opposition protest.

In his budget speech, he said that Rs 1652 billion have been allocated for general revenue receipts.

He said Punjab is expecting an income of 1276 billion rupees from federal divisible pool.

"It is estimated that revenue of Rs 376 billion will be generated by the province out of which Rs 276 billion will be generated through taxes while Rs 100 billion will be generated through non-tax revenue. Current expenditure estimate for the ongoing fiscal year is Rs 1264 billion," he said during his speech.

The government has allocated Rs 373 billion for the education sector which is Rs 28 billion more than the previous budget of 2017- 2018. Rs 500 million have been allocated for pre-primary schooling, Rs 50 million for technical and vocational training in schools and Rs 284 billion have been earmarked for the health sector.

The minister said that Rs 313 billion have been allocated for salaries, Rs 207 billion for pensioners, Rs 438 billion for local governments, Rs 305 billion for the service delivery expenses and Rs 238 billion for annual development expenditures.

He pointed out that the former PML-N government was allocated Rs 635 billion in ADP of 2017-18 while actual utilization of the budget was Rs 411 billion.

Bakht said due to serious economic crisis in the country, the government has allocated a huge amount of Rs 148 billion as surplus. This amount will remain with the government and it will be used for development expenditures.

The government has allocated Rs 93 billion for agriculture sector, Rs 15 billion for providing interest-free loans to farmers, Rs 19.5 billion for irrigation sector, Rs 6 billion for construction of Dadhocha Dam, Rs 149 billion for infrastructure development, Rs 68 billion for road sector, Rs 35.5 billion for transport, Rs 5 billion for connectivity of roads from villages to districts, Rs 33 billion for Orange Line Train, Rs 6.3 billion for Environment Endowment Fund, Rs 4 billion for promotion of public-private partnership, Rs 6 billion for entrepreneurship development programme, Rs 4 billion for Allama Iqbal and Faisalabad Industrial State and Rs 5.40 billion for energy sector.

The Finance Minister said that the government is expected to earn Rs 16 billion through resource mobilization and save Rs 80 billion from expenditure rationalization. "It is expected that we will get Rs 96 billion additional revenue. The government is also introducing fiscal responsibility and debt management law," he further added. Hashim Jawan Bakht termed the 2018-19 budget as corrective budget which will provide a base for establishing a new Pakistan.

The budget session started 1 hour 20 minutes late under the chair of Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018


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