LAHORE: The Punjab caretaker cabinet Monday approved the interim budget for the next four months from November 2023 to February 2024, Geo News reported.
In a meeting, chaired by Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Lahore, a budget worth Rs2.08 trillion received the interim cabinet's green signal, just two months prior to the general elections expected in the last week of January next year.
The Punjab interim cabinet's approval comes a day before the last quarter's budget period ends on October 31, 2023.
The cabinet has set aside Rs351 billion for development in the province for the next quarterly period, while most of the development budget will be spent on ongoing projects. This budget also includes approval to allocate Rs50 billion to provide relief to the people of the province
The interim government has allocated Rs1.72 trillion for non-development expenditure, while Rs355 billion has been greenlit for ongoing development schemes.
The cabinet plans to complete development schemes on time with foreign funding of Rs33 billion.
The non-development budget has been earmarked for administrative, routine and operational expenditures, while Rs170 billion has been allocated for salaries and Rs130 billion for pension in the budget.
Addressing a presser in Lahore after the cabinet meeting, Punjab Caretaker Information Minister Amir Mir said at least Rs2 billion in the interim budget have been set aside for information technology, while, Rs10 billion has been approved for the repair of roads and buildings, Rs208 billion for the health sector and Rs222 billion for education sector.
The caretaker set-up has allocated Rs 1.8 billion for the National Health Support Programme, while Rs5 billion have been set aside for Punjab textbooks. Around Rs7.3 billion have been allocated to tackle climate change.
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.
The minimum wage of workers, according to the interim budget, has been set at Rs32,000, which will be applicable from July 1, 2023.
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 Naqvi-led 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.
When the interim cabinet announced its first budget in June this year, it garnered apprehensions pertaining to the rightful use of the allocated funds for projects, which were meant for the development of the province and subsidies, albeit with a focus on the political agenda of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that was leading the coalition government in the centre up until August 2023.
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