KP government raises salaries by 16%, pensions by 15%; civil servants to WFH on Fridays

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra on Monday presented the provincial budget with an outlay of Rs1.3 trillion in the provincial assembly.

Jhagra presented the fourth and last budget of the PTI’s second government in the province. He said the development budget percentage, 33%, in the KP is the highest compared to Sindh and Punjab.

The minister said KP became the hub of international investment during the PTI’s nine years in the government.

Salient features

He announced that the KP government has increased salaries of government employees by 16% and pensions by 15%.

675 ad-hoc doctors will be regularized from July 1 along with 58,000 teachers and 4,089 employees of other departments.

The civil servants will work from home on Fridays to save fuel and electricity costs.

The KP government converted executive allowance of civil servants into performance allowance while new reforms have been introduced in the budget to slash petrol and other expenditures.

The government will issue the fleet card to government officials in all departments to stop pilferage of fuel and will save up to Rs1 billion.

The minister said they have allocated Rs25billion for Sehat Card Plus from which some 0.8 million patients benefitted in 2021-22.

The government employees will also avail OPD services in the Sehat Card now and five different packages will be introduced for them.

The packages will include bone marrow transplant, multiple sclerosis, cochlear implants, thalassemia, and advance cancer coverage. The existing limit of Rs1 million per family will also be enhanced multifold.

The minister said the Food Card will cover 1 million poor families in the food subsidy net worth Rs26 billion.

The government has allocated Rs10 billion for the provision of free medicines.

The budget earmarks a record Rs2 billion for projects to mitigate climate change, including Rs1.8 billion for the Billion Tree Tsunami project. Rs15.5 billion have earmarked for eco-friendly tourism in the province.

The government has allocated Rs53.6 billion for Medical Teaching Institutes (MTIs), allied hospitals, and medical colleges.

It plans to spend Rs14.8 billion on allied hospitals, Rs30.5 billion on MTIs, and Rs8.3 billion on four new medical colleges that will be established in Dir, Buner, Charsadda, and Haripur.

The government announced a subsidy of Rs500 million for the provision of free magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) service in eight districts of the province.

Some 3,500 lady health workers (LHWs) will also be recruited.

The KP government will induct 86 new buses into the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) to increase the daily capacity of passengers to 350,000.

Rs500 million will be allocated for the Peshawar Safe City project while Rs18 billion have been reserved for village and neighborhood governments.

The KP government will integrate special education into the mainstream to become the first province in Pakistan to move towards inclusive education. For this purpose, Jhagra said they would reform the basic structure of education for differently-abled people.

The government will offer loans worth Rs25 billion to the youth and small businessmen while it has earmarked Rs22 billion for the sports sector.

The government also announced a Shuhda Package for the rescue workers who died during firefighting operations in the forests.

The capacity of the rehabilitation centers for drug addicts in Peshawar has been expanded to 1,000 from 100 and Rs180 million have been earmarked for their treatment.

Development & revenue

The size of the development program in the province is Rs418 billion of which Rs99 billion have been earmarked for the merged tribal districts while remaining Rs319 billion have been reserved for remaining part of KP.

Apart from this, Rs208.7 billion have been earmarked for grants for the merged tribal areas while Rs212.7 billion have been kept under other receipts.

The government has earmarked Rs275.7 billion for Provincial Annual Development Plan (ADP) while Rs41 billion have been allocated for Devolved ADP.

It also plans to spend Rs8.3 billion under Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) during the fiscal year 2022-23 while Rs93.2 billion have been reserved under the head of Foreign Development Assistance.

The government has also allocated Rs111.3 billion under the head of ‘other expenditures’.

KP government is expected to generate revenue of Rs570.9 billion from federal tax assignments and Rs68.9 billion under 1% of the divisible pool to the province for the war on terror.

It has estimated to receive Rs31 billion from oil and gas royalties and surcharges (straight transfers from the federal government) and Rs61.9 billion in Net Hydel Profit (NHP).

The provincial tax and non-tax revenue target is set at Rs85 billion.

In the budget, Rs88.9 billion have been kept under foreign project assistance for settled districts and Rs4.3 billion for merged tribal areas.

Other allocations

KP government has allocated Rs29,458 million for agriculture, Rs29,203 million for energy and power, Rs4,191 million for the environment, and Rs6,433 million for forestry.

The KP government has reserved Rs227,087 million for elementary and secondary education, Rs34,191 million for higher education, and Rs205,725 million for health.

The government has proposed earmarking Rs4,926 million for industries, Rs2,990 million for information technology (IT), Rs25,725 for irrigation, Rs6,608 million for social welfare, Rs22,017 for sports, culture, and tourism.

Rs2,849 million have been allocated for technical education and Rs12,151 million for transport.