June 14, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1424

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LAHORE, June 13: Finance Minister Hasnain Bahadur Dreshak will present before the Punjab Assembly the provincial budget for the fiscal 2003-04 on Saturday amid loud protests against the LFO by the opposition.

It is going to be the first budget to be presented by the PML-Q government in the province which was installed in November last year after general elections on Oct 10.

The combined opposition in the provincial assembly is expected to protest against the LFO the way they did in the National Assembly by thumping desks and raising slogans against the PML-Q government during the finance minister’s budget speech, sources said.

Opposition leader Qasim Zia said the opposition would finalize its strategy for the budget session before its start at the joint meeting of the parliamentary parties of the PPP-Parliamentarians, the PML-N and the MMA. But, he responded to a query, “our protest would remain confined within the parliamentary norms.”

According to a source, the revenue income for the fiscal 2003-04 is estimated at Rs145 billion. The development outlay would be in the vicinity of Rs32 billion.

This compares to the estimated revenue income of Rs130 billion and development budget of Rs20.750 billion for the current fiscal year ending on June 30.

The increase in the development budget is due to a decision of the government to “shift” the allocations in the previous budgets for the maintenance and repairs of physical infrastructure in the non-development expenditure to the development budget. The salary bill of teachers may also be shifted to the development side.

The estimated revenue expenditure is likely to go up by 10 per cent to some Rs129 billion, leaving a surplus for the development schemes to be undertaken by the government.

A meeting was on to finalize the budget speech and development schemes in the light of the directions of the chief minister when this report was filed well after midnight. The sources said that the meeting was presided by the finance minister and was attended by the provincial secretary of finance and chairman of the P&D.

Persons involved in the preparation of the budget told this reporter on Friday that the budget for the “next fiscal year would be tax-free”. However, they added, some existing taxes were being revised upwards.

The district governments will get Rs65 billion during the next year. This compares to Rs60 billion — including Rs9 billion for development — allocated to the districts for the current year.