PESHAWAR: Finance Minister Taimur Salim Jhagra on Saturday said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had allocated Rs10 billion to provide health facilities to people through the Sehat Insaf Card.
In his post-budget press conference, the minister said all the people of the province would be provided Sehat Insaf Cards during the current fiscal year.
He was flanked by Adviser to Chief Minister on Information Ajmal Wazir.
Taimur Jhagra said if needed the government would seek loans as the province received Rs150 billion less from the federal government due to shortfall in receipts.
“Though loans have not been sought but if the need arose the option of loans from banks could be utilized to meet the budget deficit,”he added.
To a question, he said the federal government had imposed a cut of more than Rs150 billion on the amount the province was getting through National Finance Commission (NFC) award due to shortfall in federal levy. He added that the province economy faced a deficit of Rs160 billion in the last three months due to the coronavirus.
The minister said an agreement would be inked with an insurance company within a month for provision of Sehat Insaf Cards to the people.
Next year Rs18 billion would be earmarked for the purpose, he said, adding that provision of sehat cards to the people would be ensured within six months.
The minister said the budget was presented at a time when the provincial economy was badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic and meeting the targets was a great challenge.
However, the government tried to reduce its expenditure and concentrated on providing relief to the people through revival of business and industrial activities that was the reason no new tax was imposed.
The government had to increase the health budget keeping in view the corona pandemic and a total of Rs148 billion were allocated for health that included Rs124 billion for different health sector departments and Rs 24 billion for corona related issues.
He said the KP government allocated Rs317 billion for development programme which was even higher than Sindh and equal to that of Punjab.
He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) uncapped the Rs6 billion on account of net hydel profit and the province had started receiving Rs3 billion on monthly basis but unfortunately the coronavirus pandemic caused delay in the payment.
He said Rs37 billion were allocated for development schemes in the merged districts.
He said in the 2019-20 budget annual development Programme outlay was Rs 202 billion wherein Rs160 billion were for settled and Rs 73 billion for the merged districts.
Though the province faced great hardships due to corona but the government succeeded in controlling the situation through better financial management, he said, adding that and the government collected Rs 17 billion taxes before the pandemic.