Web Desk:
Finance Minister Balochistan, Mir Zahoor Buledi presented the budget for the financial year 2020-21 with a total outlay of Rs. 465.5 billion during the provincial assembly session on Saturday evening.
Addressing amid uproar in the house because of opposition members protest, the Finance Minister informed that Rs. 309.032 billion were allocated for non-development expenditures, Rs. 156 billion for the public sector development program and the pro-poor fund has been increased from Rs. 4.282 billion to Rs. 11.320 billion in the province. The opposition members staged a walkout from the assembly session as a protest against what they called the government’s step-motherly treatment.
Mr. Buledi said that the provincial government has allocated Rs. 8 billion to battle the novel coronavirus in the province. “This year’s budget was challenging in the aftermath of the pandemic”, Mr. Buledi mentioned.
The Finance Minister informed that the health and education sectors were given priority in the budget and Rs. 70.358 billion were allocated for the education sector and Rs. 31.405 billion were allocated for the health sector.
Apart from this, the agriculture sector has been given priority to support the farmers and growers to promote the agriculture sector in Balochistan.
Mr. Buledi informed that the budget deficit was around 87 billion rupees. He however said that no new tax was imposed in the budget. The deficit in the budget for this year was high since the federal government has regretted to provide Rs. 30 billion under the national finance commission award. This has resulted in an increase in the deficit of the province.
Like federal government, the Balochistan government also decided not to increase the salaries of government employees in the province.
