QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly has approved a supplementary budget of Rs81.5 billion for the outgoing fiscal year.
The additional expenditure was approved during the session presided over by Speaker Abdul Khaliq Achakzai on Tuesday.
Finance Minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani presented 19 demands for grants for non-development expenditure amounting to Rs40.85bn and 19 demands for grants for development expenditures of Rs40.67bn.
Supplementary demands for grants are moved in the house to cover the additional money spent by government departments during the outgoing fiscal year. It essentially means the governemnt spent more money that the allocation in the budget at the start of the fiscal year.
The demands, moved by the finance minister, were approved without any opposition.
The opposition, which claimed that the budget for fiscal year 2025-26 was formulated with their consultation, didn’t move a single cut motion to block the supplementary budget.
The demands for grants were issued to the members three days ago but none of the opposition members from JUI-F, Jamaat-i-Islami, Awami National Party, National Party, BNP-Mengal or BNP-Awami opposed them.
While the house unanimously approved all 38 supplementary grants, none of the opposition members gave their names despite the speaker asking for discussion on the supplementary budget.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2025