PESHAWAR, July 5: The NWFP government presented over Rs4.4 billion supplementary budget for the 2001-02 financial year reflecting major increase due to the raise under certain heads of the recurring expenditure of the provincial government.

The supplementary budget for the out-going financial year was presented along with the budgetary outlay for the 2002-03 financial year in line with the Article 124 of the Constitution.

“The recurring expenditure under the main head of ‘other’ recorded considerable increase is due to major increase in the salary bill of the provincial government,” said senior government functionaries.

Out of the total Rs4.4bn supplementary budget, a significant amount of Rs1.9bn supplementary expenditure was made under the heads of ‘charged’ and ‘other’ expenditure.

The Rs1.9bn supplementary expenditure — necessitated for almost all the line departments and their attached wings — apparently recorded whopping increase in the recurring spending under the main head of ‘other’ expenses.

Over Rs1.59bn — out of the Rs1.9bn — was incurred mainly due to the raise in the salaries of the provincial government’s employees, a decision which was in line with the federal government’s instructions.

Besides the Rs1.9bn amount, the province also incurred supplementary expenditure due to the shifting of a major chunk of Rs1.4bn towards the rural and urban development sector. An additional amount of Rs527m was spent on education and training, Rs108m on the construction of irrigation channels and Rs115m was spent on the construction of roads and highways.

The supplementary budget of Rs270m was exclusively presented under the head of state trading in food. Similarly, supplementary budget of Rs12m was presented on account of debt servicing — loan from federal government discharged.