Caretaker CM approves budget proposals

PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (Retd) Dost Muhammad Khan has agreed to the approval of budget for the four months (July to October) of 2018 under the Constitution.

According to an official handout, the budget will be cleared by the cabinet soon at a meeting after Eidul Fitr.

The caretaker chief minister agreed to 10 per cent increase in salaries and pensions of the basic pay to the provincial government employees on the pattern of federal government employees.

Dost Muhammad directed to move a summary for both the development and non-developmental expenditures and the Annual Development Plan schemes for four months. He was presiding over a high-level meeting of the budget at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, Peshawar.

Chief Secretary Muhammad Azam Khan, Additional Chief Secretary Planning and Development Shahzad Bangash, secretary finance and others attended the meeting.

The caretaker chief minister was given a detailed presentation by the additional chief secretary on the ADP-funded projects. The secretary finance talked on the development and non-development budget for four months.

The participants of the meeting focused on the constitutional provision for the approval of budget for four months, the developmental prioritisation and some other important aspects of the expenditures.

The authorised expenditures stand at Rs198.5 billion. The current expenditure will be Rs145.4 billion wherein Rs84.8 billion will go to the salaries and Rs61.6 billion would be allocation for non-salaried expenditures. The developmental budget for the four months is estimated at Rs53.1 billion. It would be further allocated as Rs24.4 billion to the province, Rs9.8 billion to districts and Rs18.9 billion to FPA. The district governments would get Rs66.38 billion.

The caretaker chief minister agreed to the budgetary proposals for the four months and directed to move a summary immediately, which would be presented to the caretaker cabinet of the province for approval.

Dost Muhammad said the funding of the schemes should be based on the public interest that would be the sole criteria.

He directed to have a proper mechanism to control the price spiral, saying the administration of all tiers of governance should check price-hike.

“We did not exploit our natural potential of water conservation and electricity production through perennial water resources,” he regretted, adding that resultantly, the barren land could not be made cultivable.