The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)-led government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday unveiled a budget with an outlay of Rs648 billion for the remaining eight months of the current fiscal, with Rs180bn earmarked for development.

Delivering the budget speech in the KP Assembly session with Speaker Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani in the chair, Minister for Finance Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra said the government had decided against revising the rate of any provincial tax since the uplift of poor segments of society was its top priority.

"We are making concentrated efforts to strengthen tax recovery system, however, we will not impose any new taxes on people," he said.

The estimated expenditure in the budget is Rs618bn, while the government expects to raise Rs603bn in revenue in FY2018-19.

Of the total outlay, Rs438 billion will be spent on current expenditure, including pay and pension bill of government employees.

The minister also announced an increase of 10 per cent ad-hoc relief in salaries and pensions in addition to 50pc rise in house rent of provincial government employees.

Providing a break-up of provincial receipts, he said KP will receive Rs426bn from the federal divisible pool, Rs23bn as gas royalty, Rs29bn as net hydel profit and Rs36bn as arrears of the net profit.

The province's own receipts have been estimated at Rs112bn, including Rs23.8bn from taxes and Rs17.4bn from non-tax sectors. A total of Rs 71bn has been pitched as foreign grants, reflecting an 11pc increase over the outgoing year.

The government has allocated Rs167bn for education, including Rs21bn for development projects.

According to the finance minister, Rs78bn have been set aside for healthcare, including Rs12 for developmental projects.

Some Rs62.5bn have been proposed for peace and security, Rs6.5bn for development of forestry and expansion of the Billion Tree Tsunami Project, and Rs4.1bn for development of urban areas.

More than Rs24bn have been set aside for agriculture, fisheries, irrigation and energy, the minister announced.

The lion's share of Rs39bn allocated for the transport sector will be spent on the completion of the Bus Rapid Transit project, and other development schemes.

The government has proposed Rs79.55bn for the provincial development projects, while Rs29.34bn have been set aside for development schemes financed by the district annual development programme.