LAHORE
The Punjab caretaker government on Monday unveiled Rs2076.2 billion budget for the next four months of 2023-24 after approval from the provincial cabinet. Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi presided over the meeting of the cabinet and approved the four-month budget.
As per the budget, the caretaker government has allocated a substantial sum of Rs1,718 billion for non-developmental expenditure. This includes an allocation of Rs50 billion reserved to deliver crucial relief packages to the province’s residents.
Additionally, the health sector has received a noteworthy allocation of Rs208 billion, while education has been prioritized with Rs222 billion in funding. The development of the agriculture sector is set to benefit from a dedicated Rs10 billion.
Furthermore, Rs1.8 billion has been assigned to bolster the National Health Support Program, Rs5 billion for provision of Punjab textbooks, Rs7.3 billion is committed to addressing the pressing issue of climate change and Rs351 billion has been approved to fund the ongoing development projects across the province.
Rs170 billion were allocaed for salaries of government employees while Rs130 billion were given for pensions. It is worth noting that these development initiatives are set to maintain their momentum with the support of foreign funding amounting to Rs33 billion, ensuring that ongoing projects stay on track and are completed as scheduled.
However, the approved budget of Rs2,076 billion will be rolled out from November 1 until February 2024; meanwhile, an allocation of funds for a 120-day period has been announced.
Addressing a presser in Lahore after the cabinet meeting, Punjab Caretaker Information Minister Amir Mir said at least Rs2 billion in the budget have been set aside for information technology, while Rs10 billion have been approved for the repair of roads and buildings and Rs208 billion for the health sector.
The minister said that the provincial government has paid Rs83 billion against wheat debt retirement.
“At least Rs10 billion have been dedicated towards priority projects in the agriculture sector, while Rs80 billion have been allocated to repay federal loans,” he said.
It should be noted that the interim set-up in Punjab was ready to present its budget for the second quarter of the current financial year 2023-2024 before the cabinet.
In June this year, the Punjab government presented its first four-month budget from July to October, allocating Rs1.72 trillion for various expenditures after having consumed the remaining six-month budget — January-June 2023 — approved by the previous government led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The budget has raised concerns owing to the lack of documentation bearing details about how the allocated money would be utilised by the caretaker government in the run-up to the general polls, which were earlier expected to take place this month.
Later on Monday afternoon, Caretaker Information Minister Amir Mir, addressed a press conference to share the budget details and said the amount reserved for development budget was Rs351bn for the ongoing schemes.
It means the non-development expenditure during the Nov-Feb period will stand at Rs1,722 out of the total budget outlay of Rs2,073bn.
He said the crackdown against foreigner staying illegally in the province as decided by the federal governemnt would start from Nov 1 like other parts of the country and Rs400 million had been reserved for the purpose. These people would be first shifted to camps for their deportation later, Mir added.
About the upcoming general elections, the Punjab minister said 50,000 polling stations were being established across the province, as he reiterated the stance that the caretaker government would fully assist the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in holding free and fair polls.
Mir promised that the elections would be held on time [to be decided by the ECP] and assured of the caretaker setup providing extra security to the foreign observers monitoring the electoral process.
Last week, the ECP had invited foreigner observers and media persons interested in covering the general elections in Pakistan, while also setting some conditions for them, which included security clearance.
During the press conference, the provincial cabinet members were also asked about the steps being taken to deal with smog – a serious environmental and health issue that surfaces every year in late autumn and continues well into winter in the absence of rains.
Answering various queries, Excise and Taxation Minister Bilal Afzal said there won’t be any additional weekly holiday on Wednesday – a suggestion considered at the government level but later binned due to the complications it will generate amid the opposition especially by traders.
However, the minister informed reporters that the government was having consultations on whether to declare Monday a holiday, thus resulting a long weekend.
The idea behind this proposal is that the pollution level reaches its highest level during the first three days – Monday to Wednesday – of the week as more and more people travel for daily businesses after the weekend.
Studies have repeated shown that vehicular traffic is the main source of pollution causing smog in cities like Lahore as there is a lack of mass transit systems, meaning people rely on personal cars.
