LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar Saturday presided over a meeting to review in detail the salient features of the provincial budget 2021-22 as well as priorities and development projects in different sectors under the Annual Development Programme.
He ordered for making the budget welfare oriented and said that special attention would be paid to welfare of the deprived segments of society.
The forthcoming budget of Punjab government would be public, cultivator, industrialist and worker-friendly and would bring good news for all.
He said that the government was ensuring provision of maximum relief to the common man in the coming budget.
Usman Buzdar ordered for sustainable measures in the next fiscal budget to facilitate all walks of life. He ordered for keeping the Annual Development Programme realistic under the vision of composite development in the province and also ordered for allocating more resources for health sector in the wake of recent corona pandemic.
He said that priority would be given to education, infrastructure, and transport sectors besides ensuring provision of clean drinking water as well as development of other social sectors.
He said that the upcoming budget should reflect the development of the province and the well-being of the people in a true sense, instead of statistics.
The CM ordered for focusing on austerity, savings and financial discipline in the forthcoming budget and that the scope of projects of public welfare would be extended under the Public-Private Partnership and unnecessary expenditure would be reduced further.
No extra burden would be placed in the budget on the impecunious strata.
He said that salaries of provincial employees had been increased by 25 percent and would be further increased in the budget.
He said that all possible steps would be taken to increase the revenue as the focus of the Annual Development Programme would be on sustainable and uniform development of social sectors and backward areas and regional needs would be given due importance in public welfare projects.
The CM was briefed by the Chairman P&D about the priorities in the Annual Development Programme of budget 2021-22. Also, the secretary finance presented salient features of the budget 2021-22. Provincial Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht, Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Chairman Planning and Development, Secretary Finance and other officials concerned were also present.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister said that the federal government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, has presented the best budget in which special relief has been provided to the deprived segments of society.
He said that for the first time in history, tax relief of billions of rupees had been given to different sectors.
He said that initiatives announced in the federal budget would further strengthen the national economy.
Due to the solid policies of the government, all economic indicators had been turned positive.
He slammed the opposition and said that indecent and undemocratic attitude during the budget speech as well as unjustifiable hue and cry on such a balanced budget was not a positive approach.
He also termed the attitude of opposition on public-friendly initiatives against the national interest.
The opposition’s confusion over the best and balanced budget was quite obvious to all. The opposition did not want Pakistan to be economically strong, the CM said.
These elements had lost consciousness after seeing the real statistics and facts of improvement in the economy, he added. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan was put on the road to progress and prosperity. He assured the budget of Punjab would be people-friendly as well.