PESHAWAR: Districts to get more uplift funds: Budget for next year
By Mohammad Ali Khan
PESHAWAR, April 27: The NWFP government has decided to increase by 20 per cent the district governments’ share in development spending under the next budget.
The Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) — which determines resource distribution between provincial and district governments — in principle approved the increase recently, an official of the finance department told Dawn.
The provincial government, he said, was yet to receive information about the transfer of expected resources from the federal government for the next financial year. However, calculations made on the basis of 10 per cent increase in the federal proceeds put the overall size of the provincial pool at Rs71.306 billion.
These figures had been communicated to the PFC to work out the expected resource transfer to district and provincial governments under the next PFC award, the official said.
As per such calculations, the provincial government is planning to deduct Rs19.170 billion from the pool as provincial obligatory expenditure, leaving Rs52.136 billion as the divisible amount in the next fiscal year.
Similarly, out of Rs52.136 billion the provincial government wanted to transfer Rs28.807 billion to districts and spend the remaining Rs23.328 billion on provincial government machinery, the official said.
The district governments’ share is divided into four main categories — salary expenditure, non-salary expenditure, development and octroi and district tax.
Of Rs28.807 billion districts’ share, Rs1.156 billion will be earmarked for development. This shows an increase of about 20 per cent as compared to the amount allocated under this head during the last four years.
The provincial government has been allocating Rs963 million as district governments’ share for development under the PFC award. The salary component of the district governments has been fixed at Rs23.680 billion, an increase of 10 per cent which will be utilised for recruitment against new posts and other necessary heads.
The non-salary component of the district governments under the next PFC award will also be increased by 27.5 per cent. The increase was meant to double the maintenance and repair funds for the districts in order to ensure early payment of electricity dues by the district governments, the official said.
Likewise, the district governments would get Rs1.231 billion on account of octroi and district tax. This too is 20 per cent more than the allocation for the current fiscal year. Of this amount, Rs66.697 million would be given to financially-weak tehsil municipal administrations, the official added.
