Rs109.11 billion supplementary budget presented

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra presented the supplementary budget of about Rs109.11 billion for the outgoing financial year 2020-21 in the provincial assembly on Friday.

The document reflected the poor planning and extra expenditures on the part of the government in development and non-development sectors.

The supplementary budget with the current expenditures of about Rs78.84 billion and about Rs30.27 billion development expenditures was moved soon after presenting the annual budget for the next financial year.

The minister said the surplus expenditures were made on the basis of revised estimates, re-appropriation of funds and subsidy and relief given in different sectors that were not reflected in the budget documents for 2020-21.

According to the figures given in the supplementary budget a sum of Rs9 billion and 84 lakhs were released to Food Department as subsidy amount on account of the extra cost of wheat.

The Police Department was given an amount of Rs6,096 million for the recruitment and purchase of goods in newly created districts of the province.

Similarly, surplus amount or re-appropriate funds were released for repairs and maintenance of roads and buildings, district non-salary head; Primary and Secondary Education Department, Administration of Justice, Agriculture Department, Higher Education; Public Health Engineering; Livestock; Irrigation, Wildlife department; Communication and Works Department; Social Welfare and Special Education sectors.

The finance minister said a total of Rs177 billion had been proposed for the development budget, including for the newly merged districts of the province that were reduced to about Rs166 billion as revised estimates thus the developmental budget had been reduced by about Rs10 billion.

An extra fund of Rs302.715 million was relocated or re-appropriated for the completion or expediting works on the developmental projects including schemes under PSDP.

The provincial government received an extra amount of about Rs17.57 billion for the PSDP schemes in the province during the outgoing financial year while the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government released about Rs12.69 billion for expediting construction works on the ongoing developmental schemes in the province.