The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday presented its budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 with a total outlay of Rs1.332 trillion. The PTI government presented its budget quite smoothly in the KP Assembly on Monday. The budget speech was delivered by provincial Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra. During his speech, the finance minister announced a 16% increase in the salaries of government employees and 15% raise in pensions. He also announced an increased Shuhada Package. Mr Jhagra said that tax revenue from the federal government would amount to Rs537 billion. While Rs319.2 billion have been proposed for the development budget. He said that Rs4.9 billion have been set aside for the improvement of climate change. Higher education will get Rs34 billion.

The finance minister boasted that the tax recoveries by the KP government were phenomenal during the outgoing fiscal, adding that foreign investors are making Rs86 billion investments in the province. He said that Rs14 billion have been earmarked under the head of law and justice; Rs1.8 billion set aside for information technology; Rs1 billion for labour; Rs3.6 billion for population welfare; Rs23 billion for relief department; Rs820.3 million for housing; Rs22 billion for sport; and Rs2 billion have been allocated for climate change. The KP finance minister said the provincial government has made a 15% increase in the allowances of police, rescue, and forest department officials. Earlier, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet approved the provincial budget.

The KP cabinet met in Peshawar on Monday and gave approval to the Rs1.332 trillion budget for the province. The cabinet also approved a Shuhada Package for the Rescue officials who lost their lives while putting out wildfires in the KP forests. Besides them, the forest department officials who also died during firefighting efforts in forests would get Rs1 million each. The provincial cabinet approved a 15% raise in the salaries of provincial government employees working in BPS 1 to 19 and also played a 15% hike in pensions. Police department is also included in this category. For the first time in the province's history, the cabinet regularized 63,000 employees.

The cabinet approved a Rs26 billion subsidy for the provision of Insaf Food Card so that one million deserving families could buy food items at discounted rates. From Jan 2022, the medical treatment of five diseases including transplantation of liver will be included in Health Card Plus. The cabinet also approved a Rs418 billion development budget. According to budget documents, Rs93 billion, which the province will receive in foreign aid, will also be utilized in the development projects. It has been suggested in the budget to set aside Rs37.80 billion for health in the ADP. For primary and secondary education, the government has proposed to allocate Rs16.99 billion. For agriculture, an allocation to the tune of Rs10.66 billion has been suggested. Sports, Tourism and Archeology will get Rs14.64 billion. 

The budget proposes to set aside Rs7.27 billion for energy and power. According to the budget documents, the KP government would launch Insaf Food Card and Education Card. One million families will be provided with Insaf Food Card. As many as 5 million people will be given financial aid amounting to Rs2100 in the province. The budget documents reveal that through Insaf Food Card, Rs26 billion subsidy would be awarded and these cards will be given to the poor people among whom 65% would be the widows. He also announced the establishment of new medical colleges in Dir, Buner, Charsadda and Haripur. 

Credit:
Independent News Pakistan-INP