PASHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to gradually abolish 6,500 low-cadre posts to save over Rs4 billion declaring them a burden on the exchequer.

“These posts have been declared the dying cadre’s. All these posts will be done away with after the retirement of the incumbents,” finance secretary Shakeel Qadar told the post- budget news conference here at the provincial secretariat on Tuesday.

The presser was mainly addressed by finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra and was attended by administrative secretaries.

The finance secretary told Dawn that the 6,500 low-cadre posts in question had been part of the provincial civil service since the British rule but those working on them had lost utility after the introduction of technology and development in society.

Secretary says KP foreign debts total $3.8bn; BRT service to begin in March

He said there existed 90 posts of mashalchis tasked with putting oil into the lantern.

The secretary said the cabinet had already approved the abolition of such posts in a meeting held on Monday.

He said the other posts to be abolished included basta bardar, dishwasher, misalchi, tandoorchi’s.

Earlier, the finance secretary told the news conference that the province’s foreign debts totaled $3.8 billion, while the provincial government spent 1.5 percent of its budget to return loans and pay interest on them.

He added that $3.8 billion also included the loans, which were in the pipeline.

Finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra briefed the media about the budget, which he had presented in the provincial assembly on Monday.

He praised the last provincial government for ‘best financial management’, which, he said, had resulted in the province’s stable financial conditions though there’s a financial crisis at the national level.

The minister said he was not happy with the current development outlay and that the province would need more money in future for development sector.

He said the finance department had set certain priorities for the current fiscal year, including the strengthening of the province’s own revenue base, finding of a compact yet permanent solution to the issues of net hydel profit and other dues to be cleared by the federal government.

The minister said the government’s third priority was to minimise its expenditure, which were going up by 20 percent every year.

“All efforts will be made to support the private sector for creating jobs,” he said.

The minister said the budget making mechanism also needed reforms as the existing designing of the budget was very old.

The finance secretary said the budget didn’t have new taxes for the relief of common man and had targeted the people not paying taxes.

He said most of the development budget had been allocated for ongoing schemes to reduce the throw-forward liabilities.

The secretary said the development schemes of every department would be rationalised to control the throw-forward liabilities.

Regarding the completion and cost of the ongoing Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project, planning and development secretary Shahab Ali Shah said the project cost stood at Rs66.4 billion.

He said the civil work on the BRT project would be completed by the end of Dec, while the service would begin by March next year.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2018