Zehri presents Balochistan budget with deficit of Rs36b

“Deficit of the budget has been estimated around Rs36 billion,” he said while presenting the budget in the provincial assembly in Quetta.

The chief minister said that revenues worth more than Rs252b would be collected during the new financial year.

An amount worth Rs218b has been allocated for non-development expenditures in the budget and only Rs71b allocated for development projects, which makes 75 percent of the budget.

Zehri further said Rs42.67bn has been allocated for education sector, while the outstanding students would be provided laptops and for this purpose Rs50 million have been allocated in the budget. He also announced 14,000 students from Balochistan will be given scholarships in national and international educational institutions.

Similarly, he said five billion rupees have also been allocated for developmental schemes to be completed under the supervision of local bodies councils across the province.

Nawab Sanaullah Khan Zehri said the government had decided to allocate Rs10b for provision of clean drinking water to Quetta city under the Pat Feeder canal project to be completed at a total cost of Rs40b.

“A handsome amount of Rs7.4b has been allocated for overall betterment of agricultural sector in the new budget,” he said.

Rs30 billion have been allocated for law and order, while two billion rupees have been allocated for mass transit train and one billion rupees for Green Bus.

The chief minister Balochistan during his budget speech announced 10 percent increase in the salaries of employees of the provincial government on the pattern of federal government.

He said three new medical colleges will be established in Khuzdar, Loralai and Turbat during the next fiscal year 2016-17.

Zehri told the house that Rs1.57 billion has been allocated in the new budget for free provision of medicines to patients.