Total receipt estimate for FY24 is Rs 1456.712 bn with a notable increase of 9pc, CM aide shared
DLP Report
PESHAWAR
Advisor to Chief Minister on Finance Muzamil Aslam on Saturday criticized the federal government for failing to release promised funds for merged districts and pay dues of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government timely, adding that electricity bills have bankrupted almost every citizen in Pakistan.
KP is providing cheap electricity to the federal government at Rs 1.1 per unit and the federal government sells it at Rs 30 to 60 per unit while the federal government did not release these funds on time, he said.
Speaking at a post-budget 2023-24 press conference Minister Law and Finance Aftab Alam Muzamil Aslam shared that the federal government has done an agreement with the IMF to give a surplus of 450 billion rupees 0f the whole country, in which KP ‘s share becomes Rs 96 billion.
“KP has a surplus of 65 billion rupees in 9 months, while Sindh province, which is double of KP has only Rs 77 billion surplus and Punjab which is double of Sindh is only Rs 150 billion surpluses, Muzamil added.
According estimates shared by the provincial minister the total receipt estimate for the fiscal year 2023-24 is Rs 1456.712 billion with a notable increase of 9 percent while the total budget estimates for the fiscal year 2023-24 is Rs 1360.4 billion demonstrating a moderate 2 percent increase as compare to previous financial year, with a surplus of Rs 96.3 billion achieved underscoring prudent fiscal management and economic reforms.
Finance Secretary Aamir Sultan Tareen and Special Secretary Khuda Baksh also attended the briefing. Adviser Finance Muzamil Aslam while detailing the current budget estimates for 2023-24 said that the total expenditure is Rs 1059.3 billion against Rs 913.8 billion with a 16% increase while total settled districts current budget is Rs. 942.4 billion with an increase of 19%.
KP Advisor on Finance explaining the details that among the main features of the ongoing expenditure for the settled districts includes Rs. 1.5 billion for Ehsas Eid package, 0.5 billion rupees for providing shelters, Rs. 2.8 billion for relief measures, 26 billion rupees for Sehat card, 47.8 billion rupees for wheat subsidy, 3.4 billion rupees for procurement of machinery for police and 6.0 billion rupees for provision of free textbooks.
He said that total Merged Areas current budget is Rs. 116.9 against Rs. 124.0 billion showing decrease of 6%, Such as decrease of 0.3 % in Provincial Salary and increase of 23 % of Tehsil Salary, decrease of 17 % in Provincial Non-Salary budget and decrease of 9% in Tehsil Non-Salary budget and pension expenses have increased by 297% in current fiscal year.
Adviser on Finance Muzamil Aslam, giving details regarding the Development Budget 2023-24, said that total Development budget is Rs. 301.1 billion against Rs. 418.2 billion with decrease of 28% such as settled Provincial ADP of Rs. 86 billion against Rs. 185 billion previous showing decrease of 54%, settled District ADP of Rs. 17 billion with same decrease of 54% are the part of current fiscal year. Mr. Muzamal Aslam said that under the annual development program of the merged districts, 26 billion rupees are included with an increase of 30% against previous 20 billion.
Advisor on Finance Muzamil Aslam said that the caretaker government has no mandate to spend the development budget while they released 113 billion rupees in the first four months, 112 billion rupees in the second four months, while the current political government released 86 billion rupees in the current fiscal year. Muzamil Aslam said that the federal government has done an agreement with the IMF to give a surplus of 450 billion rupees 0f the whole country, in which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s share becomes Rs. 96 billion, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a surplus of 65 billion rupees in 9 months, while Sindh province, which is double of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has only Rs. 77 billion surplus and Punjab which is double of Sindh is only Rs. 150 billion surpluses.
KP Adviser on Finance said that electricity bills have bankrupted almost every citizen in Pakistan, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is providing cheap electricity to the federal government at Rs 1.1 per unit and the federal government sells it at Rs 30 to 60 per unit while the Federal Government did not release these funds on time.
Muzamil Aslam said that the federal government provides only 66 billion rupees for the merged districts while only salary expenditure of the merged districts is 96 billion rupees in the current fiscal year. In this regard, several letters have been sent to the federal government.
During the briefing Secretary Finance Aamir Sultan Tareen said that the province has received 101 billion rupees in the last five years under the AIP program which is very less compared to five hundred billion rupees and 101 billion rupees of ADP has also been received.
