'Poor friendly' Rs488bn budget unveiled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

[Kabira]

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday announced a Rs488 billion budget for FY2015-16 in the KP Assembly today.

The budget, which is referred to as 'poor-friendly' by KP Finance Minister Muzafar Said, allocated a greater portion of funds to health and education.

A copy of the budget speech obtained by Dawn.com said the total outlay for the FY15-16 budget is 21 per cent greater than that of the outgoing fiscal year.

Total current expenditure is estimated at Rs313bn, while total current revenue expenditure is estimated to be Rs298bn over FY15-16, and total development expenditure at Rs174.9bn.

The allocations for foreign project assistance and debt servicing both fell compared to FY14-15 estimates by 17.3pc and 0.8pc respectively.

Of the total outlay, 29pc or Rs142bn has been allocated to the Annual Development Programme ─ an increase of Rs42bn compared to FY14-15's revised estimate of Rs100bn.

Education
Elementary and secondary education has been allocated Rs98.5bn, while higher education, archives and libraries has been allotted Rs15.5bn, both departments experiencing a 20pc and 16pc increase respectively compared to FY14-15 budget estimates.

Welfare and development
The total budget for welfare, administrative and development budget estimates is Rs487.88bn, of which welfare receives 53pc or Rs259.17bn, while administrative receives 11pc (Rs53.83bn) and development Rs174.88bn or 36pc.

Salaries
A 10pc increase is expected in the salaries of civil servants, while daily wagers are to earn a minimum of Rs13,000 monthly, up from Rs12,000 during FY14-15. Salaries have been allocated Rs175bn in FY15-16, an increase of 20pc over the outgoing fiscal year.

Estimated federal transfers
Total estimated federal transfers are budgeted at Rs371bn, of which federal tax assignment receives the largest share at Rs251bn.

Allocations for various sectors are as follows:

• Education (elementary and higher): Rs114bn
• Health: Rs38.2bn, 14pc increase since FY14-15
• Social welfare, special education, women's development: Rs1.9bn, 18pc increase since FY14-15
• Police: Rs34.5bn, 14pc increase since FY14-15
• Administration of justice: Rs5.9bn, 13pc increase since FY14-15
• Irrigation: Rs3.6bn, 13pc increase since FY14-15
• Agriculture: Rs3.51bn, 12pc increase since FY14-15
• Forest and environment: Rs1.83bn, 11pc increase since FY14-15
• Communications and infrastructure: Rs2.76bn, 17pc increase since FY14-15
• Pensioners: Rs37.4bn, 20pc increase since FY14-15
• Local government: Rs27.7bn, 82pc increase since FY14-15
• Others: Rs232.8bn, 27pc increase since FY14-15
• Wheat subsidy: Rs2.9bn
• Loan mark-up payments: Rs7.2bn

'Poor friendly' Rs488bn budget unveiled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

 

[Muhammad Omar]

Development and Infrastructure?

 

[M.SAAD]

Nice to see they're spending more on education, infrastructure and development comes after that.

 

[karakoram]

Well a good budget overhall.

 

[RealNapster]

Development and Infrastructure?

Will. i am from KPK
and i need
health and education first

 

[Kabira]

Development and Infrastructure?

Rs 2 billion Peshawar flyover

 

[Hyde]

The budget looks good so far

Once again, Sindh budget was slightly disappointing with Punjab and KP likely to give tough competition to each other.

Awaiting to see Balochistan budget and I hope they will allocate plenty of money for education, health and human resource development

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

Development and Infrastructure?

Yeah, No 50 billion metro bus project there. They should import drug smuggler Hanif Abbasi to take care of this tiny 50 billion for INFRASTRUCTURE of metro bus.
Look man, health and education is more important. ..Then other big projects....like metro train. Still long way to go, We must improve health and education system...Look the condition of hospitals from Karachi till Khyber. First they must provide basic necessities. We are not rich Country like Saudi Arabia. .
We need to move forward step by step .

 

[Hyde]

Yeah, No 50 billion metro bus project there. They should import drug smuggler Hanif Abbasi to take care of this tiny 50 billion for INFRASTRUCTURE of metro bus.
Look man, health and education is more important. ..Then other big projects....like metro train. Still long way to go, We must improve health and education system...Look the condition of hospitals from Karachi till Khyber. First they must provide basic necessities. We are not rich Country like Saudi Arabia. .
We need to move forward step by step .

If health and education is most important, is that mean we should spend all money on health and education?

How are you going to generate revenue if you are not going to invest in development projects? Even ever criticised bridges saves billions of rupees per year in national exchequer when you make a count of savings in fuel and time.

you need to have a balance in development projects. If Education and Health is already getting he biggest most chunk of the budget it means the priorities are right, the question is how much more where we can argue about

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

If health and education is most important, is that mean we should spend all money on health and education?

How are you going to generate revenue if you are not going to invest in development projects? Even ever criticised bridges saves billions of rupees per year in national exchequer when you make a count of savings in fuel and time.

you need to have a balance in development projects. If Education and Health is already getting he biggest most chunk of the budget it means the priorities are right, the question is how much more where we can argue about

Obviously development is important. ...Bridges are part of it...But why spend 50 billion on project like metro Bus when you can provide fast service within 1 billion Rupee. .. I remember Varan bus service here..Fast and furious, travel tine from pindi to Islamabad wad 35-40 minutes....It was well diciplined service. Special dress code for driver and conductors, and red stars on inspectors. I enjoyed this service during college life and affordable fares too

 

[ziaulislam]

If health and education is most important, is that mean we should spend all money on health and education?

How are you going to generate revenue if you are not going to invest in development projects? Even ever criticised bridges saves billions of rupees per year in national exchequer when you make a count of savings in fuel and time.

you need to have a balance in development projects. If Education and Health is already getting he biggest most chunk of the budget it means the priorities are right, the question is how much more where we can argue about

i think provinces need to focus on health leaving the federation to do major infrastructure push projects..
what i want to say is that we rank 140 in education in other words country with poorest infrastructure are better off than we are and the reason is non other than poor spending..so yes we need to change the pattern and spend more on education

Rs 2 billion Peshawar flyover

a very important project.
federal govt especially railway minister should allow the unused land of railway for Peshawar metro project ..the railway abandoned line cross through the linear city of Peshawar making it an ideal route for metro. the land is ample for both metro and keep the existing railway infrastructure and the cost will be incredible reduced by 700%

Peshawar being a linear city means an actual metro will be too costly to build

 

[Jazzbot]

Development and Infrastructure?

Ha!! The only thing you Noonies care about.

 

[[--Leo--]]

they should control the child birth of pathans shouldn't be allowed more than 5 .....well honestly i have seen many pathans who have 22 children and make them work from childhood because they can't feed them......education is not the issue that is the core issue right now ....and pakistan biggest issue is currption not education

 

[Hyde]

Obviously development is important. ...Bridges are part of it...But why spend 50 billion on project like metro Bus when you can provide fast service within 1 billion Rupee. ..

An average bus costs about 5 crore rupees per bus. So if we buy 20 buses for 1 billion rupees, all the problems will be resolved?

I remember Varan bus service here..Fast and furious, travel tine from pindi to Islamabad wad 35-40 minutes....It was well diciplined service. Special dress code for driver and conductors, and red stars on inspectors. I enjoyed this service during college life and affordable fares too

The bottom line is, that service was cancelled and no longer exists. The basic logic in my mind is, it was either unaffordable or not generating enough profit for the business.

I am not against running the coaches for any routes like we have in Pakistan, the likes of metro bus service has no comparison with private companies run bus routes. It's entirely a different ball game.

i think provinces need to focus on health leaving the federation to do major infrastructure push projects..

After 65 years we finally managed to devolve some powers to provincial government and now you are talking about centralisation once again. If that was so easy to do, Kalabagh would have been reality 30 years ago as the provincial government or local leadership should have no interest in it.

If the whole job of provincial government is to cater the need of education and health, then why do we need the provincial government? why not just open two departments with allocation of funds and let them do the job?

We need to focus on everything with priority going to education and health and it does not mean you allocate all funds to these two sectors only. Already more than 25% of your provincial budget allocations are going to Education sector alone so what else do you need?

what i want to say is that we rank 140 in education in other words country with poorest infrastructure are better off than we are and the reason is non other than poor spending..so yes we need to change the pattern and spend more on education

Different regions in Pakistan has different priorities. As you see the latest survey by alif ailaan suggests the utmost priority of KPK, Sindh and Balochistan should be to invest as much as possible in education but the standard of education in Punjab is comparatively better so I see nothing wrong in their strategy of investing in development projects too. End of the day, education is your future of economy but development is your present source of income

 

[ziaulislam]

they should control the child birth of pathans shouldn't be allowed more than 5 .....well honestly i have seen many pathans who have 22 children and make them work from childhood because they can't feed them......education is not the issue that is the core issue right now ....and pakistan biggest issue is currption not education

corruption is due to lack of education.
thats the case mostly in FATA not KPK..due to lack of everything