KP govt unveils Rs900b budget for fiscal year 2019-20

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) government on Tuesday unveiled a new surplus budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 with a record outlay of over Rs900 billion, ARY News reported. 

Presenting the provincial budget in the KP assembly, Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that Rs900 Billion have been allocated in the budget for the new and larger KP province.

Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that KP government had reduced salaries of cabinet members by 12 percent as part of austerity measures.

He said that Rs180 billion have been allocated for the Annual Development Programme which is a record.

Reducing Expenditure (Salaries)

KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and the KP cabinet will reduce their salary by 12pc.

Senior civil and public servants of Grade 22, Grade 21, and Grade 20 serving in the provincial government will forego any increase in salary, as will other civil servants serving in positions with substantial allowances.

A 5pc increase to all other civil and public servants in Grades 17, 18 and 19 as ad-hoc relief allowance and a 10pc increase to all civil and public servants Grade 16 and below, also as ad-hoc relief allowance.

Retirement Regulations

Taimur Saleem announced that cabinet has passed a proposal to change the mandatory retirement age to 63, and early retirement to 25 years of service, or 55 years of age.

Minimum Pay

To make the private sector more attractive, KP finance minister announced an increase in the minimum pay in the province from Rs15000 per month to Rs17500 per month.

The KP finance minister announced that Rs1.1 billion has been earmarked as a special fund for the least developed districts programme. These districts include Kolai Palas, Battagram, Tank, Kohistan Upper, Shangla, Chitral Upper and Lower and Hangu.

Tribal Districts:

From a normal budget with the former FATA Secretariat of Rs55 billion, the finance minister announced to increase the overall merged areas budget to Rs162 billion.

This includes 83 billion for the 1st year of the 10 year development plan.

The 83 billion will be used in the following way.

Rs. 59 billion to add to the normal Merged districts ADP of Rs. 24 billion, making total development spend equal to Rs. 83 billion.

Highlights of the 2019-20 Budget

Improving Healthcare

Over Rs. 7 billion to be spent across the current and development budgets for the enhancement of facilities at flagship tertiary hospitals including the Peshawar Institute of Cardiology, KTH, LRH, HMC, the Institute of Kidney Diseases, Saidu Hospital, Fountain House Peshawar and others.

Taimoor Saleem announced that the budget for Medicine in Primary and Secondary facilities has been doubled from Rs500 million to Rs1000 million.

Rs820 million for the treatment of poor cancer patients.
Rs4.4 billion for various Health Service Delivery and Immunization programmes.

Providing better emergency services

Expansion of Rescue 1122 services in 4 new districts namely, Lakki Marwat, Malakand, Shangla and Lower Kohistan creating 1000+ new jobs, as part of a drive to expand to every district in the province.

Education:

The provincial finance minister announced that the KP government has decided to Improve 28,000 schools.

Recruitment of 21,000 teachers to address multi-grade teaching – total 65,000 required to make 4 teachers in every school.

Recruit 3000 new ASDOs out of a plan of 7000. This will significantly improve school leadership, bringing the average number of schools per ASDO from 45+ to 8 and subsequently to 3.

Read More: Opposition protests in KP assembly budget session

Completion of 700 out of 10,000 state of the art ECE nursery classrooms.

Construction of 6,000 new classrooms out of the 15,000 classrooms required to counter overcrowding.

 Provision of Rs1.86 Billion for girls stipends.

 Rs. 500m for Women Cadet college at Mardan.

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Promoting Tourism and Sports

The finance minister announced that Rs3.7 billion have been allocated for tourism promotion and destinations development through World Bank assisted KITE program.

 Rs. 1 billion have been allocated for tourism roads in the Malakand and Hazara divisions for promotion of unexplored tourist spots and Rs. 150m for access to Sheikh Badin tourist site.

Rs.300m for various tourism activities across the province.

Construction of recreational park at Hund Swabi.

Rs 500m for Development of 1000 Playing facilities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Rs 350m for establishment and upgradation of 7 sports complexes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Rs. 70m for promotion of hockey and squash throughout the province.

Developing cities and villages

Rs 4.5b have been allocated for the development of Peshawar mainly improvement and construction of Ring road, New Bus Stand, Peshawar uplift Programs and Regi Model Town.

Rs 600m for Southern Area Development Project.

Rs 3.4b for KP Districts Governance and Community Development Program in collaboration with EU.\

Rs 1500m for Municipal Services Delivery Project in collaboration with USAID.

Rs 145m for Establishment of Public Parks.

Roads and Energy:

Rs 8.6 billion have been allocated for the Provincial Roads Rehabilitation Project under PKHA Portfolio in collaboration with ADB.

Rs 3.4 billion for dualization of Mardan-Swabi Road in collaboration with ADB.

Rs 1.2 billion for solarization of 4000 Masajid, and multiple schools, BHUs throughout the settled districts.

Completion of construction of various Hydro Power Projects in Lower Dir, Shangla and Mansehra generating more then 70MW.

Rs 200m for Electrification and Gasification work.

The provincial government has allocated Rs100m for the establishment of citizen facilitation center in Peshawar.

Revamping Agriculture, Livestock and addressing water issues

More the Rs 2.5 billion allocated for various schemes under PM Agriculture Emergency program to increase productivity, conserve more water, develop more cultivable areas and promote an organic lifestyle.

Rs 642 m for drinking water schemes for Karak.

Rs 1 billion for Gravity Flow Water Supply Scheme in District Mansehra to be funded by SFD.

 Rs 3.7 billion for small and medium-sized drinking water schemes throughout the settled districts.

Improving healthcare

Rs80m has been allocated for the provision of medicines and diagnostic materials for health facilities.

Rs85m for Strengthening of DHQ Hospitals of Merged Areas.

Rs60 m for mobile hospital programme in FATA.

The budget also proposes a tax of Rs30,000 on CNG and other gas stations.