Punjab caretaker cabinet approves four-month budget, decides to give 30% relief in salaries

LAHORE (92 News) - The Punjab caretaker cabinet approved budget proposals amounting to Rs1,719 billion for four months on Monday.

Addressing a press conference, the caretaker provincial ministers decided to give a 30 percent adhoc relief in the salaries of the government employees.

They said that it had also been decided to increase the allocations for health and education by 31 percent. "In the budget, a debt amounting to Rs600 billion will be repaid," they added.

They announced no new tax was being imposed. "A 20 percent increase will be made in the pension of people over 80 years. All taxes and duties will be abolished for the education and business of information technology," they said.

The ministers said that an amount of Rs70 billion had been earmarked for providing a relief to the people during the four months. They said that the proposal to increase stamp duty by three percent had been rejected. "The cabinet approved to fix the stamp duty at one percent for the construction industry," they added.

The ministers disclosed that a budget of Rs470-600 million had been allocated for the agriculture sector.

APP adds: Amir Mir said that total outlay of the budget would be Rs 1719.3 billion for four months from July to October, 2023. He explained that Punjab would receive Rs 881 billion tax receipts from federal government and its own contribution would be Rs 194 billion.

"Development expenditures allocations stand at Rs 325 billion," he said, adding that 4,800 projects were in progress in the province, out of which 2,500 projects would be completed in the next four months.

For the first time in the history of Punjab, he mentioned, a Journalist Endowment Fund amounting to Rs 1 billion had been established that would definitely ensure well-being of the journalist community across the province.

The minister said that an amount of Rs 721 billion would be spent on salaries and pensions.

Caretaker Provincial Industries Minister SM Tanveer said that Rs 47.6 billion would be spent on agriculture initiatives and capital investment in energy sector would be Rs 16.4 billion during next four months.

"Punjab Thermal Power (Private) Limited (PTPL), incorporated under the Companies Act, 2017 would be completed and Rs 17 billion set aside to operationalise the power plants which were closed down in 2017. Service Delivery expenditure would be Rs 120.4 billion, while proposal of increasing stamp duty to 3 per cent rejected and it would be maintained at one percent to promote construction sector," he said.