Rs 198.395 billion deficit Balochistan budget presented: 15 percent raise in government employees'' salaries

The coalition government of Balochistan presented Rs 198.395 billion deficit budget for financial year 2013-14 here in the assembly session on Thursday. Speaker Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali presided over the budget session. Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch presented Rs 198.395 billion deficit budget for fiscal year 2013-14.
The 15 percent increase in salaries of government employees from BPS-1 to 16 and 10 percent for BPS-17 and above. The 15 percent increase was made in head of pension of government employees. The 4493 new vacancies were announced in the budget. Rs 7.942 billion deficit was shown in the budget. Delivering his budget speech, Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik said the new budget includes Rs 43.913 billion of Annual Development Program and Rs 154.482 billion of Non-Development expenditures.
It was first annual budget presented by Dr Abdul Malik led coalition government of Pakistan Muslim League-N, Pashtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party and National Party. Provincial Minister and Parliamentary leader of PML-N, Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, and Provincial Minister and Parliamentary leader of PkMAP Abdul Raheem Ziaratwal, Parliamentary Leader of Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl Maulana Abdul Wasey, Parliamentary Leader of PML-Q Sheikh Jaffar Mandokhel and other lawmakers were present in the house.
The mover Dr Abdul Malik said that about 4,493 new jobs have been created in different government departments including education, health and others and the federal government has promised financial support for providing jobs to youth of Balochistan in federal institutions. Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik said that Rs 16.236 billion have been allocated in the budget for maintenance of law and order and for departments pertaining to law and order. Our government has earmarked Rs 16.236 billion for police, Balochistan Constabulary, Levies Force and other departments for maintenance of law and order, he said.
He said that Rs 34898.635 million has been allocated for education sector and Rs 15233.578 million for health sector. Bolan Medical College will be given status of medical university. Rs 5 billion allocated on head of Balochistan Education Endowment Fund for Education.
Referring to Reko Diq project, the CM said that Rs 4.5 billion have been allocated for Rekodeq and other profitable projects as his government has decided to invest to introduce Reko Diq and Saindak copper and gold projects in the market in order to gain financial benefits from them. A sum of Rs 1.609 billion have been earmarked for minerals sector. The provincial government has earmarked Rs 7.870 billion for agricultural sector, he said adding that special financial aid package would be given to agriculture sector to boost the agri-economy of the province.
He said that Rs 8.185 billion have been allocated for energy sector. He revealed that Rs 02 billion funds have been earmarked in the new fiscal budget for execution of project of solar home system adding that such projects after implementation would help in meeting our energy requirements. He said that special funds of Rs 1.483 billion have been allocated for improvement of fisheries sector. He said that Balochistan would collect income of Rs 6.467 billion from its own resources adding while the province would receive Rs 123.274 billion from divisible pool and Rs 14. 201 billion from direct transfers, Rs 17.454 billion from other receipts and Rs 3. 652 billion from capital receipts.
Dr Abdul Malik mentioned that Rs 8.171 billion funds have been allocated for construction of roads of 267 schemes. He said that Balochistan Budget for 2013-14 includes Rs 3.981 billion in foreign aid. Referring to water issue, he said that an amount of Rs 4.662 billion has been earmarked for construction of dams and other projects pertaining to the irrigation sector.