MUZAFFARABAD, June 22: AJK finance minister Raja Nisar Ahmed Khan presented the state's tax free but deficit budget for the fiscal year 2004-05 in the Legislative Assembly here on Tuesday.

With a total outlay of Rs 15,785.7 million, the budget proposes Rs 11,182.7 million for non-development expenditures and Rs 4,603 million including a foreign aid of Rs 706.880 million for development purposes.

The fiscal document says a total income of Rs 9,257.248 million, of which Rs 3,905.153 million would be generated from local resources such as excise and taxation, forests and electricity; Rs 1,880 million from the AJK Council as 80 per cent share of the taxes collected from the AJK territory and Rs 2,534.095 million from the centre as AJK's share in federal taxes. In addition, Rs 938 million are expected as Mangla Dam royalty.

The gap between income and expenditures would be bridged by the Pakistan government, which is Rs 1,925.452 million. The deficit has scaled down due to Mangla Dam royalty.

The minister thanked Islamabad for demonstrating its commitment to the Kashmiris by not only meeting the budget deficit, but also by additionally providing Rs 131 million for food subsidy, Rs 170 million for payment of power dues (to Wapda), Rs 120 million for medicines and Rs 114 million for registered and unregistered Kashmiri refugees beyond the allocated budget.

He informed the house that in the next year's budget the government would give priority to communications sector by allocating Rs 1.25 billion for it, which was 28 per cent of the total ADP.

The next year's allocation was 13 per cent more than the current year's allocation, he said. Apart from that, schemes for rehabilitation of roads and other infrastructure in border areas worth Rs 300 million provided by Pakistan would also be completed during next year.

The minister said the roads connecting district headquarters with Rawalpindi/Islamabad as well as AJK districts roads would be converted into dual carriageways. Besides major roads, 15km-long roads in each constituency would also be constructed on the recommendation of the local MLA.

He announced that feasibilities for construction of tunnels in Leepa, Kahuta and Pando would also be conducted shortly, but there was no word whether any amount had been allocated for the purpose.

He said that Rs 170 million had been proposed for the maintenance and up-keeping of the existing infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and buildings. He added that Rs 986.880 million had been proposed for local government and rural development, including a foreign aid of Rs 396.880 million and a special grant of Rs 140 million by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Of this allocation, Rs 40 million were proposed for prime minister's special directive programme, Rs 84 million for social sector projects in 28 constituencies on the recommendation of the concerned MLA, Rs 226 million for construction and upgrading of roads and suspension bridges, 15 million for village water supply schemes, 10 million for construction/completion of primary schools and an equal amount for the local bodies for their development schemes.

He announced that Rs 10 million each would be provided to the municipal corporations in Muzaffarabad and Mirpur but there was no such allocation in the budget book. He informed the house that Rs 140 million provided by Gen Musharraf would be equally distributed and spent in 28 constituencies in AJK on the recommendation of the MLA concerned.

He said Rs 445 million had been earmarked for the electricity department and assured that 100 per cent AJK population would get electricity in the next three years. He said that Rs 50 million had been earmarked for the AJK Hydro Electric Board.

He said the identified hydel power generation potential in AJK was around 5,000 megawatts and the government was "endeavouring to tap this potential". The private sponsors had been offered 1,045mw capacity sites and another 1,036mw capacity sites were ready for international competitive bidding, he said, adding some 25 other sites with an estimated capacity of 1,650mw were also awaiting offers on first-come-first-served basis.

He said the resource management projects would get Rs 467 million, of which Rs 300 million was foreign aid. Giving break-up of this allocation, he said Rs 335 million would go to Pakistani Community Development Programme Rs 110 million to Multi-Sector Rehabilitation Project (sponsored by the Asian Development Bank) and Rs two million to the UNDP-funded National Urban Poverty Alleviation Programme.

These programmes envisaged poverty alleviation and capacity building of the rural population on the basis of local community's participation, he said. In the agriculture sector, he said Rs 153 million were earmarked for forestry, Rs 18 million for animal husbandry, Rs 15 million for crop improvement and Rs 7 million for fisheries/wildlife.

REVISED BUDGET: The finance minister also presented the revised budget of the current year to the tune of Rs 14,886 million, including non developmental expenditures of 11,506 million and development expenditures of Rs 3,830 million.