KP unveils Rs1,332 billion budget with focus on 'self-sufficiency'

The government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Monday unveiled a Rs1,332-billion budget for fiscal year 2022-23 with a focus on self-sufficiency.

Announcing the budget, KP Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra announced that its size would be Rs1,332 billion, including Rs1,109.1 billion for settled districts and Rs222.9 billion for the newly-merged areas (NMAs). He said that the upcoming budget was centred around the theme of self-sufficiency.

Out of Rs1,332 billion, Rs418.2 billion have been allocated for development while Rs85 billion are expected from tax and non-tax revenue. Moreover, Rs275 billion have been earmarked for provincial uplift and Rs31 billion for annual development programme.

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The collection from war on terror tax (at 1%) is expected to clock in at Rs68 billion and the province is expected to earn Rs31 billion from oil and gas royalty and surcharge.

The budget for FY23 will have a historic allocation of Rs185 billion for ADP in settled districts and Rs20 billion in merged districts, with a total development budget of Rs316 billion including ADP and AIP in both merged and settled districts, he said. Federal transfers are budgeted at Rs671.5 billion.

In the budget, Rs25 billion have been earmarked for Sehat Card Plus, Rs6 billion for capacity expansion grant for MTIs and its allied entities and medical colleges, Rs11 billion for medicines for primary and secondary healthcare and Rs4 billion for provision of free OPD medicine in all public health facilities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Key highlights of budget 2022-23

He added that new reforms included transport monetisation and vehicle leasing policy, change of executive allowance to performance allowance, work from home on Fridays and introduction of fleet cards to save fuel and reduce risk of pilferage across all departments.

“The PSDP funding has been halved to Rs8.3 billion by the federal government,” said Jhagra.

All government employees will get 15% ad-hoc allowance, he said.

Jhagra highlighted that Pakistan’s growth rate during fiscal year 2021-22 stood at 5.5% against India’s 6% “because of Imran Khan’s historic steps such as Ehsaas programme, Kissan and Sehat cards and Panaah Gah scheme.”

“In 2 months, dollar went up from Rs178 to Rs202 while petrol price surged from Rs150-210 per litre,” he said.

Electricity price went up from Rs17 per unit to Rs25 per unit, he said.

Pensions

“Today, around 150,000 Pakistan Railways pensioners from across the country, from grade 1 to 21, are unable to receive their pensions or GP funds because their pensions were never funded,” he said. “The KP province has 700,000 employees with unfunded pensions which is a looming crisis as pension liabilities have reached an unsustainable size and would soon begin eating into the development budget in the next 3-5 years.”

In order to avoid such a scenario, the KP Government is transitioning towards contributory pension, something which should have been done 15 years ago, he said.

He stressed that it would protect pension for generations to come and make regularisation easier.