LAHORE: Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan has said that for the first time in the history of Punjab, the government increased development funds by Rs100 billion in one year.

He expressed these views while talking to the media at the end of a seminar held here on Friday. He further said that huge spending on development projects is yielding positive results and added that reforms in the public finance management system are further improving the economic situation of the province.

“The prevailing inflation in the country is linked with the global crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and not due to the government’s incompetence. The PTI government has taken unprecedented sustainable measures to tackle the inflation,” he added.

According to him, the Punjab Revenue Authority continued to show good performance this year by collecting Rs13.03 billion in March while between July 2021 and March 2022 a 16 percent increase was seen in the revenue collection. This success is undoubtedly the result of the government’s policy of partnering with the stakeholders. It is hoped that the Authority would exceed the targets set for revenue collection this year as well.

“The revenue collected is being spent on the provision of public facilities. The target of providing health facilities to the whole of Punjab through health cards has been achieved. To provide relief to the common man against price hikes, the government set up sahulat bazaars, launched the Ehsaas programme and set up 313 Ramazan bazaars where food items are available to the common man at low prices. These bazaars started a few days ago and they will be converted into Eid bazaars after 20 Ramazan. For this purpose, funds have been released to the local administrations,” he added.

He further said that Rs4.43 billion have been released to the food department to provide flour at a reasonable rate in Ramazan markets and general markets. “The supply of sugar, ghee, vegetables and poultry products at reasonable prices in Ramazan bazaars is also being ensured,” he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022