PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly on Friday passed a surplus budget of Rs1,360.37 billion for 11 months of the fiscal year (FY) 2023-24 including the last eight months of the interim government and the last two months of the current elected government.
The budget included Rs 1,059.276 billion in ongoing expenses and Rs 301,094 billion in development expenses. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister Aftab Alam Afridi presented the budget in the assembly session chaired by Speaker Babar Saleem Swati.
He said in his speech that the current financial and economic difficulties have made this budget more difficult because, on the one hand, most of the infrastructure of the province was destroyed due to the disastrous floods of 2022 and on the other hand terrorism.
He said successive incidents have also adversely affected the provincial economy, adding that under Article 126 of the Constitution, the caretaker government approved the expenditure for four months from July 1, 2023, to October 31, 2023 after that, the interim government, in consultation with the law department, also approved the expenditure for another four months, from November 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024.
Meanwhile, general elections were held on February 8, 2024, but the new provincial cabinet had not been formed by that time, due to which, under Article 125, the provincial assembly approved the expenses for one month from March 1, 2024, to March 29, 2024, he informed.
The Minister said that similarly, the provincial cabinet also approved the necessary expenses for the two months of April 2024 and May 2024.
While informing the House about the details and important points of the total budget of the current financial year, including the budget for the last ten months, the Minister said that the federal tax revenue was Rs 764.611 billion while the amount received under the war on terror was Rs 91.873 billion and Rs 38.661billion were received under royalties and surcharges on oil and gas.
The windfall levy was Rs 91.795 billion, the revenue under net profit of hydropower was Rs 31.519 billion, and revenue (arrears) in the form of net profit of hydropower was Rs.53.442 billion.
Similarly, tax revenues in the form of provincial revenues were Rs 56.490 billion, non-tax revenues were Rs 28.510 billion, capital in other products was 0.250 billion rupees, the non-development grant for the merged districts was Rs 66billion, additional grant for ongoing expenditure was Rs 50.867 billion, annual development program was Rs 26 billion and 31 billion rupees for the accelerated implementation program.
He said that Rs 114.384 billion were received from foreign aid for different development projects and Rs 11.310 billion for federal government-funded projects.
Aftab Alam said that the federal revenue received Rs 1.071.901 billion, provincial revenue was 85 billion rupees, other revenues was Rs 0.250 billion, the amount received for merged districts was Rs 173.867 billion and other development revenue was Rs 125.694 billion. Later the assembly proceedings adjourned till Monday 2 p.m.