Balochistan government to present budget for 2019-20 today

QUETTA (92 News) – Balochistan government will present its budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year on Wednesday (today). According to the reports, Balochistan Minister for Finance Mir Zah­o­or Ahmed Buledi will present the province’s budget. Sources said the total outlay of the budget is expected to be around Rs390 billion with deficit of more than Rs40 billion. It was also reported that the provincial government is likely to allocate Rs95 billion for the development project and education and health sectors, provision of safe drinking water and maintenance of law and order would get priority in the budget. According to the sources, the Balochistan government is expected to allocate Rs60bn for education, Rs40bn for maintenance of law and order and Rs24bn for health sector. By injecting money in the revenue generating mechanism of the province, the financial managers of the Balochistan government were expecting to earn Rs20bn. The government is likely to announce 6,000 new jobs in different departments in the upcoming fiscal year. The minister said that the province will receive Rs453 billion rupees from the federal taxes and Rs54 billion from the federal divisible pool for war on terror. It will also receive an amount of Rs151 billion from the federal government for development of tribal districts in addition to Rs55 billion as net profit of electricity. He said that Rs108 billion has been allocated for the Annual Development Programme which is a record. This amount is 41 percent more than the current ADP. The minister announced a 10 percent increase in the salary of government employees from scale one to 16 and five percent from 17 to 20. He said that the age of superannuation has been enhanced from 60 to 63 years which will help save Rs20 billion annually. Earlier, a meeting of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet was held in Peshawar with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair. The cabinet approved budgetary proposals for new financial year.