Rs23.17 bn KP supplementary budget presented

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Finance Taimoor Saleem Khan Jhagra on Monday placed supplementary budget of Rs23.17 billion for the financial year 2017-18 before the provincial assembly.

The finance minister presenting the supplementary budget said the revenue expenditures were estimated at Rs388 billion in 2017-18 that were revised to Rs389 billion. However, in some grants, the expenditures surpassed the estimated allocated amount due to which the volume of the current expenditures reached Rs6.977 billion and the approval of the same is essential from the house.

The total current expenditure of the supplementary budget 2017-18 is including provincial assembly Rs17,31,980, Administration and Justice (Rs1,39,67,74000, Health (Rs81,78,06600, PHE (Rs40,10,95950, Forest & Wildlife (Rs8,11,87,000), Irrigation Rs50,72,34,000 (Stationery & Printing (2,21,67,010), Pension (Rs3,28,34,75,600), Auqaf, Religious, Minority Affairs (Rs.5,89,98,740), Energy & Power (Rs65,99,000), Debt Servicing (Rs400 million) and miscellaneous (Rs6,220) respectively.

The finance minister said an amount of over Rs3.92 billion had been released for payment of ad hoc relief to the provincial employees, which was mostly adjusted from the savings of different departments.

He said that an additional amount of Rs1.731 million was released to provincial assembly in head of salaries and allowances while another amount of Rs1.39 billion was released to Administration and Justice Department for creation of new vacancies, salaries, allowances, purchase of vehicles, furniture & computer equipment, training, POL, maintenance & repair of building, payment of utility bills and meeting other expenditures of the department.

An amount of Rs817.806 million was released to Health Department for the purchase of machinery and equipment while PHE Department was paid Rs401.095 million in the head of salaries, allowances, electricity bill, LPR and repairing of machinery and equipment.

Similarly, the Forest and Wildlife Department has released an additional amount of Rs81.187 million in head of salaries and meeting other requirements while additional fund amount to Rs507.234 million was released to Irrigation Department for the payment of salaries & allowances, LPR, electricity bills, repairing of irrigational channels and other requirements while Stationery and Printing Department was also released an additional amount of Rs22.167 million for similar requirements.

Furthermore, he said, in July 2017, a huge additional amount of Rs3.283 billion released for an increase in pension while Auqaf, Religious, Minorities & Hajj Affairs was released an additional amount of Rs58.998 million for payment of grants, salaries, allowances and other requirements.

The minister told the house that another amount of Rs6.599 million was released to Energy and Power Department for the payment of salaries and allowances to staff while another amount of Rs400 million was released for repayment of the federal government's debt.

Taimoor added that the total development budget for the year was Rs126 billion, which after revised expenditures climbed to Rs134.56 billion that resulted in increasing the developmental budget by Rs8.56 billion.

However, he said they are presenting a supplementary development budget of Rs16.199 billion as the federal government has provided only Rs3.111 billion for the Public Sector Development Programme funded schemes while for some schemes, the provincial government released additional funds.