The Azad Jammu and Kashmir government on Wednesday presented tax-free budget for the fiscal year 2012-13, with a total volume of Rs 49.50 billion in the legislative assembly of AJK. The government recommended a 20 percent increase in the budget in terms of salaries and pension of the government’s employees. AJK Assembly Speaker Sardar Ghulam Sadiq chaired the session while Minister for Finance Pervez Ashraf presented the budget. The finance minister told the assembly that estimated revenue for the year 2012-13 included Rs 15.31 billion from the state resources, Rs 8.4 million revenue would be generated in term of water charges from Mangla Dam, Rs 7.40 Billion from AJK counsel and Rs 11.40 billion as a share from the federal taxes while the Deficits would be expected around Rs 5.10 billion. Meanwhile, Rs 49.50 billion budgets Rs 9.50 billion has been earmarked as development expenditures and Rs 40.5 billion as no developmental expenditures. Ashraf said the current budget had been raised by over 15 percent compared to fiscal year 2010-2011 budget as the volume of budget for 2011-12 was Rs 44.54billion. He said the government allocated an additional Rs 2.45 billion for the on development schemes in AJK, which increased the total volume of development schemes to upto Rs 11 billion. The government reserved Rs 10 billion for the rehabilitation of earthquake affected, he added.
