PESHAWAR: The caretaker government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will unveil over Rs460 billion budget for the first quarter of the next fiscal today (Tuesday) with no allocations for new development projects.

On Sunday, the finance department formally asked the administration department to call a cabinet meeting here at 11am on Tuesday to present the province’s budget for the first four months of the financial year 2023-24.

“Under Article 126 of the Constitution, the proposal for the authorisation of expenditure [budget] for four months from 1st July to 2023 to 31st October 2023 out of the provincial consolidated fund is required to be presented to the provincial cabinet on June 20,” the finance department said in the communication.

Adviser to the chief minister on finance Himayatullah Khan will address a news conference later to reveal the authorised expenditure.

No funding for new projects, govt employees to get 30 to 35pc pay raise

Details available with Dawn show that the caretaker government has projected the expenditure for the province’s settled districts for the next four months at over Rs400 billion, while the current expenditure for tribal districts (formerly Fata) total over Rs60 billion.

The province’s current budget for the first quarter of the next fiscal has been estimated to be Rs300 billion.

Of the amount, Rs84 billion will be allocated for the provincial salary budget and Rs77 billion for the district salary budget.

The documents show that the value of the Annual Development Programme for settled districts will be Rs93 billion, which includes Rs43 billion provincial and Rs8 billion district components and Rs38 billion donor-funded projects.

Similarly, around Rs3 billion has been reflected in the proposed budget for projects of the federal government’s Public Sector Development Programme.

On the other hand, the current budget for tribal districts of the province will be over Rs40 billion for the next four months.

The ADP for tribal districts will receive Rs19 billion.

The documents reveal that the tribal district ADP has been pitched at Rs8 billion for the first quarter of the next financial year, while Rs10 billion will go to the Accelerated Implementation Programme.

Officials told Dawn that the caretaker government had decided to grant a 35 per cent pay raise to its employees from BPS-1 to BPS-16, while officials in BPS-17 and above would get a 30 per cent raise in the footsteps of the federal government.

They said that the government would also increase the Secretariat Allowance of its employees.

The officials said that the decision to increase the government employees’ salaries like a similar announcement by the federal government was made due to the three days long protest by the secretariat employees.

They said that the finance department had initially vacillated on pay raise due to the province’s poor financial situation.

The officials said the provincial government had also decided to increase the minimum monthly wage from Rs26,000 to Rs32,000.

They said that there would be no new projects in the budget and the ADP allocations totalling Rs130 billion would be made for the approved ongoing schemes only.

The officials, however, said that the only exception to the new project allocations would be those related to the law and order and their approval would be subject to the nod of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2023