PESHAWAR
Khyber Pakthunkhwa Minister for Finance Taimur Salim Jhagra Tuesday said that the provincial government has taken Rs 300 billion loans for the fiscal year 2022-23 while Rs 500 to 600 billion loans are in pipeline.
Addressing a post budget press conference here, he said the government would never take more than the four to five percent loan of the annual budget, adding that the loans were only taken for mega projects.
He said the provincial government increased the revenue from 30 billion to 75 billion while during the government of Imran Khan the ratio of loan to the GDP reduced from 77 percent to 70 percent.
Jhagra said that KP is the only province which regularly released the details of loans after every six months. He said that the provincial government allocated Rs 50 billion development budget for local government including Rs 5.2 million funds for each village council.
The Minister expressed gratitude to the provincial cabinet, Planning and Development (P&D) department and finance department for preparing the budget especially the department of information for advertising the budget properly.
He said the federal government cut the development budget for merged districts especially in the funds for temporarily displaced persons due to the provincial government has reduced the funds the these districts.
Jhagra said that the provincial government has allocated Rs six billion development budget for the merged district from its own resources, adding Rs 50 billion has been allocated for tribal district while it was Rs 54 billion last year.
He said the current budget for the merged district was Rs 60 billion last year and the same was allocated for the fiscal year 2022-23, however the federal government would have to give Rs 150 billion for the merged district otherwise it would be difficult to release salaries for the employees.
Speaking on the occasion, Additional Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah said that as many as 481 developmental schemes would be completed by June 30 while till next year 556 more schemes would be completed. He said the mega project for the KP included construction of highways and irrigation schemes while the 10-year development programmes for the merged districts would also continue.
He said that maximum funds have been allocated for development schemes in the current budget and all the preparations have been done to ensure completion of these projects.
