LAHORE, June 9: The district/city district governments across the province will receive Rs186.783 billion under the current Provincial Finance Commission Award.

According to budget estimates, the Punjab government under the PFC Award-2006 has allocated Rs186.783 billion for the district governments, including five city district governments of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala. This allocation is Rs21 billion higher than the current fiscal (2011-12) allocation of Rs165.660 billion.

The tehsil/town municipal administrations (TMAs) will receive Rs17 billion under PFC award in the next fiscal. In current fiscal budget ending on June 30, the Punjab government had allocated Rs15.151 billion for the TMAs. All union councils/union administrations will receive Rs6 billion against the allocation of Rs5.247 billion.

“The provincial government is fully cognizant of the fact that empowering and strengthening of local government system is a key for ensuring equitable development throughout the province,” the budget reads.

The Punjab government has allocated Rs17.4 billion for the district development packages under its Annual Development Programme (2012-13) and Rs8.3 billion under the southern Punjab development programme.