The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government on Monday revealed a huge deficit over RS 35 billion in its budgetary estimates for the financial year of 2012-2013. However, KP Finance minister Siraj Ul Haq, in his budget speech before the provincial assembly, said that the real deficit inherited stood at Rs 41 billion.
The finance minister said that the KP government, upon assuming office, had been able to recover Rs 6 billion from the Current Revenue Receipts of 2012-2013 of the previous government.
While the finance minister did not go into further details of the deficit, he complained that the provincial government had not received any cooperation from the federal government, including living up to the promises made through National Finance Commission (NFC). Furthermore, he alleged that the federal government had also failed making payments of Hydel Net profits not only in the current financial year but also in the financial year of 2011-2012.
Going into budget documents, he explained that the provincial government had saved a huge sum of Rs 8 billion in the Annual Development Program (ADP). The allocation of ADP consumed about 90 percent of the budget. The documents confirmed around Rs 13 billion of shortfalls in the receipts of foreign aid services. The previous government projected an amount of Rs 23.258 billion from foreign services during 2012-2013 but in revised estimates, it was registered to the tune of Rs 10.759 billion.
Though the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led coalition government made a huge increase in budgetary allocation for health and education sectors, it ignored the police force in budgetary proposals for coming financial year. The finance minister said that an amount of Rs 23.781 billion was earmarked for the police department.
Ironic to mention that in former finance minister Engineer Humayoon Khan in his all five budget speeches from 2008 till 2012 had appreciated the police force for its heroic role against terrorists and militants. But Siraj Ul Haq said nothing about importance of the police force in maintaining law and order and combating the trends of violence and terrorism.
However, the PTI-led coalition government had proposed 15 percent increase in salaries of government employees and similar raise in pension of retired employees. The government also fixed minimum wage at Rs 10,000.
At the same time, the finance minister made promises of around 50 percent reduction in expenditures of chief minister’s offices and other official buildings. The provincial government also banned treatments of political figures in hospitals. However, the chief minister would approve foreign treatment for those who required it on grounds of lacking facilities and requirements at home.