Lahore Punjab to present Rs890b budget today Jawwad Rizvi Monday, June 17, 2013 From Print Edition 159 4 1 0 LAHORE THE Punjab government will present over Rs890 billion budget with development budget of almost Rs285 billion on Monday (today), focusing on solar energy, small hydel power projects and ‘special initiatives’ of the chief minister. The assembly session will be presided over by Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal while Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman will present the budget for the next fiscal year. The session will start at 4:30pm. Like the federal government, the Punjab government will also announce 10 percent increase in the salaries and pension of the government employees while some new services, still exempted from GST on Services, to be included in tax net. The government has allocated almost Rs40 billion for Chief Minister’s Special Initiatives, Rs20 billion on the energy sector, including solar and hydel generation projects. The new Metro Bus projects will start in Rawalpindi and Muree are also expected to start during the next fiscal year along two other routes of the bus in Lahore. However, funding for these projects will be made from the block allocations of the resources. The government is expecting Rs40 billion from international financial and development agencies for the various uplift projects, generating almost Rs25 billion non-tax revenue and Rs50 billion from GST on services and almost Rs95 billion from Excise and Taxation and Provincial Board of Revenue. Besides, Punjab will get over Rs700 billion during 2013-14 from federal divisible pool of the resources. According to the sources, the government has allocated some Rs110 billion for ongoing development schemes, Rs120 billion for new development schemes, Rs17 billion for District Development and Rs40 billion for the Chief Minister’s Special Initiatives. The government has doubled the soft loan limit to Rs100,000 per loan against the ongoing fiscal year of Rs50,000 for the unemployed people of the province. The government has allocated Rs5.2 billion for Punjab Industries Department which is running this soft loan scheme and others industry development schemes. Famous laptop scheme will also continue during the next fiscal year as well while almost 70,000 computers would be distributed on merit among the students of the province while some Rs4 billion will be allocated for successful execution of the scheme. For education sector, almost Rs28.6 billion are allocated, out of which Rs17 billion for school education, Rs8.5 billion for higher education, Rs1.2 billion for special education and Rs1.9 billion for literacy and non-formal basic education. The health sector development schemes will have Rs19 billion allocation, public health engineering development schemes of Rs13.5 billion, sports sector Rs2.2 billion, water supplies and sanitation development projects Rs10 billion, Rs16 billion for regional planning, Rs1.7 billion for local government development schemes, Rs33 billion for roads sector development schemes, Rs23 billion for irrigation sector, Rs10 billion for public sector buildings development projects, Rs5 billion each for planning and development board development schemes, Urban Development Schemes, Agriculture Sector, Rs1.7 billion for livestock and dairy development, Rs5 billion for information and technology development schemes and Rs6.3 billion for transport sector schemes. For tourism development Rs170 million are being allocated, Rs270 million for environment protection development projects, Rs500 million for youth and culture affairs, Rs350 million for archaeology, Rs250 million for fisheries, Rs350 million for wildlife, Rs480 million for forestry and Rs220 million for human rights development schemes. The PML-N government will continue its initiatives which it had during it last year of previous tenure of cardiology hospitals, rapid bus service, laptop schemes, Danish Schools and Ashiana Housing projects. Like the federal government, the Punjab government will also announce some austerity measures in the budget, including reducing non- development spending by 25 percent cut in pays of provincial cabinet, a complete freeze on purchase of new vehicles and furniture for all office of provincial departments.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:55:37 +0000
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