KP govt likely to unveil Rs30b surplus budget tomorrow Riaz Khan Daudzai

PESHAWAR: In an unprecedented move, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would unveil Rs30 billion surplus budget for the financial year 2018-19 on Monday envisaging total expenditures of Rs618 billion against Rs648 billion receipts for the fiscal. Provincial Finance Minister Taimoor Saleem Khan Jhagra will present the budget in the provincial assembly. Sources told The News on Saturday that Finance Department remained “super busy” over the last five months to put the budgetary plan of the provincial government on modern lines. The annual budget will envisage proposed Annual DevelopmentProgramme (ADP) ofRs180 billion againstRs208 billion development expenditures for the last fiscal year 2017-18. The ADP for 2017-18 was, however, later revised to Rs150.15 billion. The current financial year’s ADPwill include Rs79.55 billion allocations for the provincial development projects, Rs29.34 billion for the districts ADP and Rs71.10 billion for the Foreign Project Assistance (FPA). The provincial ADP would also receive Rs5 billion through loans and Rs6 billion from arrears of Net Hydel Profit (NHP). It also envisages 10 percent ad-hoc relief on running pay for all provincial government employees, 50 percent increase in rate of house rent allowance to the provincial government employees, 50 percent increase in rate of housing subsidy allowance and 50 percent increase in rate of overtime allowance to the staff drivers and dispatch riders. A 10 percent increase in pension to all pensioners of provincial government has also been proposed in the budget ensuring increase in minimum pension from Rs.6,000 to Rs10,000 and family pension from Rs4,500 to Rs7,500, increase in minimum pension to Rs15,000 for the pensioners above the age of 75. The budget document available with The News shows that total receipts for financial year 2018-19 are estimated at Rs648 billion which is 7.46 percent higher than Rs603 billion in financial year 2017-18. The revised estimates for financial year 2017-18 were recorded at Rs546.558 billion. The general revenue receipts are estimated at Rs532.635 billion against Rs470.854 billion for the financial year 2017-18. The province expects to receive Rs491 billion fromthe federal government during the current financial year. The federal resource transfers include Shared Taxes (NFC), straight transfers and other grants including Net Hydel Profit (NHP) and arrears that constitute about 92 percent of the total general revenue receipts of the province. The province’s own receipts are likely to go down by Rs4 billion as the estimated provincial own receipts for the year 2017- 18 were Rs45.215billion. However, thesewere revised at Rs34.257 billion and the estimated provincial own receipts for 2018-19 have been fixed at Rs41.62 billion. The current expenditures for 2018-19 has been projected at Rs438 billion, showing an increase of 10.89 percent over the 2017-18 budget estimates. The increase, the financial managers say, is mainly due to regularisation of a large number of project employees, increase in salaries, creation of 12,911posts during the year 2017-18 and 6,584 new posts, mainly in police, education and health departments during the current financial year. The salary component has always been worrisome for the province as it is fast increasing and and Rs218 billion was allocated for salaries during 2017- 18, while for the current fiscal an amount of Rs256 billion has been proposed in the budget document, showing an increase of Rs38 billion that comes to 17.43 percent increase over the estimates for 2017-18. A similar increase in the payment of pension would also be recorded during the current fiscal due to enhancement in rate of pension and volume of retirement. Last year Rs53 billionwas earmarked for the pensions, but this year Rs60 billion has been allocated showing an increase of 13 percent over the estimates for 2017-18. The provincial government has seemingly given ample attention to the local government institutions, which are going to receive Rs199.194 billion that includes Rs140 billon for salaries, Rs23.143 billion for non-salary components, Rs6.706 billion for recurring expenditure of local councils and Rs29.345 billion for development schemes. Owing to the actual needs of local governments, block allocation of Rs16.328 billion has been made under district non-salary for distribution on need basis. The amount also includes Rs11 billion for providing missing facilities in schools, autonomy to higher secondary schools, scholarship under Stoori da Pakhtunkhwa programme, purchase of emergency medicines, required equipment and enrolment campaign. The total proposed provincial ADP is Rs108.900 billion and Rs5 billion will be financed through loan and Rs6 billion from arrears of the NHP. A number of economy and austerity measures have also been proposed in the budget, including the imposition of ban on creation of posts except those required for completed development projects and treatment abroad on provincial government’s expense.