Rs 114.50 billion tax-free NWFP budget unveiled: Rs 5.5 billion deficit to be bridged by World Bank aid

The government of NWFP on Saturday unveiled Rs 114.507 billion tax-free budget for financial year 2007-08 against total receipts of Rs 109.01 billion, showing a deficit of Rs 5.489 billion. The Minister for Finance, Shah Raz Khan, presented the budget in the provincial assembly. Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan was in the chair.
The minister said that the deficit would be covered by an assistance of Rs 7.8 billion pledged by the World Bank. He said that like last four years the government has once again divided the budget into three categories--of welfare, developmental, and administration. The welfare budget comprises Rs 40.2 billion, developmental budget would have Rs 39.5 billion, and administrative budget would have Rs 14.8 billion.
The province would receive Rs 47.63 billion from divisible pool, Rs 5.8 billion under the head of share in general sales tax (GST), Rs 6.00 billion profit on hydel generation, Rs 3 billion in royalty on gas and oil, and a financial assistance of Rs 6.2 billion from the federal government. The province would have to generate Rs 6.2 billion from its own resources, he said.
Total current expenditure for the year is estimated at Rs 61 billion with provincial expenditure of Rs 32.8 billion, and district expenditures of Rs 28.2 billion.
The volume of the development programme of the province would be Rs 39.4 billion, including Rs 21.9 billion of the annual development programme (ADP), Rs 1.2 billion annual district development programme, Rs 8.3 billion special programme, and Rs 8.00 billion foreign assistance schemes. The estimated welfare budget of Rs 46.2 billion shows an increase by 9 percent from the outgoing financial year. Rs 1.8 billion has been allocated for education, registering 99 percent increase while an amount of Rs 2.7 billion has been allocated for health, which is Rs 0.2 billion more than the current financial year.
The shares of other sectors include agriculture Rs 509 million, irrigation & power Rs 1.5 billion) social security Rs 303 million, and environmental protection Rs 433 million.
The administrative budget has been divided into three heads--police, general administration, and prisons. Police would get Rs 5.14 billion (114 percent more than the current financial year), general administration Rs 650 million, and prisons affairs Rs 321 million.
The estimated annual development programme would get Rs 39.4 billion, showing an increase of Rs 13 billion from the current financial year; Rs 4.84 billion has been sanctioned for education, Rs 3.64 billion for health and Rs 1.24 billion for Tameer-i-Sarhad Programme.
An amount of Rs 71.47 million has been kept for development of social welfare and women development, Rs 3.96 for highways, Rs 1.34 for irrigation, Rs 322 for agriculture, Rs 538 million for industries & mineral development, Rs 3.1 billion for rural development, Rs 255 million for tourism, sports, culture and archaeology, Rs 30 million for minorities affairs, Rs 160 million for urban development, Rs 704 million for construction and houses, Rs 910 million for water supply and sanitation, Rs 392 for establishment of small power stations, Rs 316 million for development of environment and Rs 100 million for development of science and information technology in the province.
The provincial government, the finance minister said, has also decided upon 15 percent increase in the salaries of government employees, while the pensions of government employees would be increased by 15 to 20 percent. On this increase, the provincial government has to bear an extra expense of Rs 2.5 billion. Under the development budget of education sector, the minister said, the provincial government includes female education in its top priority.
The development programme of the sector comprises construction of new girls primary schools, launching of female education in backward districts, granting of Rs 200 per month scholarships for increasing number of girls students, and Rs 1000 monthly special allowance for teachers.
The government has also prepared a model project for provision of buses for girls in the provincial metropolis. The new development schemes include establishment of new primary, middle and high schools, upgradation, repairs of school buildings, providing basic facilities like computer labs, furniture and teaching instruments.
The provincial government would provide free textbooks to both boys and girls from Nursery to Intermediate levels of education. The government would also arrange education of information technology at Intermediate level. This year, the government has sanctioned Rs 4.84 billion for 142 schemes in education sector, the minister said.
In the health sector, Rs 3.64 billion has been earmarked for 134 projects, which include the opening of blood transfusion units in seven district headquarters' hospitals besides completion of district headquarters hospitals in Bannu, Shangla and Chitral.
In industrial sector, Rs 538 billion has sanctioned for 42 development schemes. The second phase of expansion of the Industrial Estate at Peshawar would be launched during the year, while work on establishment of small industrial estate would be completed in Charsadda.
Similarly, beside the establishment of marble products, training centre in Mardan would start work on opening of handicrafts and sewing centres in Kohat and Charsadda. For promotion of technical education, vocational centers would be established and polytechnic institutes would be upgraded to the level of College of Technology.
In mineral sector, the government would expedite work on standard of mapping and information dissemination projects to help increase revenue in the sector. The government would also give priority to the welfare and protection of labourers, besides extending technical skill and education of 19,600 boys and girls in the province.
The government has also announced 32 percent subsidy on electricity bill of agricultural tube-wells. Of this, the federal government would bear 12 percent and the provincial government would bear 20 percent share.