Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) tax-free budget of over Rs 55.680 billion was presented in the AJK Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad on Thursday.
AJK Finance Minister Chaudhry Latif Akbar told the House that the total outlay of the budget was Rs 55.680 billion, adding that over Rs 10.5 billion had been earmarked for development projects.
“An amount of Rs 10.5 billion has been allocated for development sector with Rs 45 billion is the recurrent budget for the coming fiscal year,” he told the House.
The AJK Assembly was told that the development budget had been increased around nine percent for the next fiscal year, compared to FY2012-13.
In his key address to the AJK lawmakers, Akbar said the PPP government had presented a well-balanced and public-friendly budget for the fiscal year 2013-14.
He said the new budget would provide a solid foundation for the socio-economic uplift of the people as it will be providing maximum facilities to them and would also accelerate the pace of development activities in AJK.
Akbar said the AJK government would generate over Rs 45 billion from its own resources‚ while the remaining amount would be provided by the federal government.
The AJK finance minister said their priorities were to improve and promote education‚ health‚ hydropower generation‚ forests‚ communication‚ and the agriculture sectors.
