Provincial Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakhat presented the Punjab budget for financial year 2019-20 with a total outlay of Rs 2.3 trillion in the Punjab Assembly on Friday.

Giving a break-up of the budget during his speech in the house, the minister said that the general revenue receipts for FY 2019-20 were estimated at Rs1,990bn, while the province was expected to receive Rs1,601.46bn under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award. He went on to say that the total provincial revenue was estimated at Rs388.4bn.

Rs350 billion have been allotted for development, whereas Rs1.71tr have been earmarked for non-development expenditure, he added.

Bakhat said that the total estimate for ongoing expenditures was Rs1,298.8bn, containing Rs337.6bn for salaries, Rs244.9bn for pension, Rs437.1bn for local governments and Rs279.2bn for service delivery.

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar chaired a provincial cabinet meeting, which approved the Punjab budget for the upcoming financial year prior to start of the budget session.

During the proceedings of the house, the opposition benches created pandemonium and tore apart copies of the budget document, besides chanting slogans against the government.

After the budget speech, Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi adjourned the session till Monday, June 17 at 3pm.

Health sector

The Punjab government has allocated a sum of Rs279bn for the health sector in the annual budget.

In his budget speech, Bakht said that the current allocations for the health sector were 20 per cent more than the last fiscal year's.

In the budget, the government has allocated Rs40bn for the establishment of new hospitals in Lahore, Layyah, Rawalpindi, Mianwali, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur.

The minister also said that the Punjab government was contemplating raising the status of the Children's Hospital Lahore to a medical university.

He said the Health Sehat Card programme would also be expanded to 26 districts of Punjab in the current fiscal year.