Rs108 billion has been allocated for the Annual Development Programme which is a record.

PESHAWAR (Dunya News) – The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa new surplus budget for fiscal year 2019-20 with a record outlay of over Rs900 billion was announced on Tuesday.

Presenting the budget in the provincial assembly, Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that as part of austerity measures, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had reduced salaries of cabinet members by 12 percent, adding that the provincial government proposed ban on foreign visits and treatment abroad by cabinet members.

He said the total revenue has been estimated at nine hundred billion rupees against the estimated expenditure of eight hundred and fifty-five billion rupees thus showing a surplus amount of forty-five billion rupees.

Taimur Jhagra said, “the province will receive Rs453 billion from the federal taxes and Rs54 billion from the federal divisible pool for war on terror.”

The minister said the province will also receive an amount of Rs151 billion from the federal government for development of tribal districts in addition to Rs55 billion as net profit of electricity.

He said Rs108 billion has been allocated for the Annual Development Programme which is a record. This amount is forty-one percent more than the current ADP.

The finance minister announced 10 percent increase in the salary of government employees from scale one to sixteen and five percent from 16 to 20.

“The age of superannuation has been enhanced from sixty to sixty-three years this will help in saving twenty billion rupees annually,” Jhagra said.

Earlier, a meeting of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet was held in Peshawar with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair. The cabinet approved budgetary proposals for new financial year.