Khyber Pakthunkhwa government presented its third budget of Rs1,118.3 billion rupees for financial year 2021-22, having a record allocation of Rs 371 billion for annual development program (ADP) and Rs747.3 billion for current budget expenditure. The KP government deviated its path from its elders sitting in the center and announced an unexpected 37 percent increase in salaries of all those employees who did not take special allowances from Government. The provincial government of PTI has given special focus on newly merged districts and allocated separate funds for development and uplifting of former tribal regions. According to details, Rs. 919 billion set aside for settled districts and Rs.199.3 billion has been reserved for newly merged districts during FY 2021-22. Similarly, out of total Rs. 371 billion ADP, KP Government earmarked Rs. 270.7 billion for settled districts and Rs. 100.3 billion for merged tribal districts. The PTI led government of KP allocated Rs. 648.3 billion settled districts and Rs 99 billion for merged districts out of total allocation of Rs. 747.3 billion for current budget expenditure. While presenting the provincial budget in the assembly, the Finance Minister informed the house that KP’s budget was based on five main pillars including a record increase in salaries of government employees, development budget, devoted services to people, increasing KP’s own resources revenue and introduction of goal oriented reforms and innovation in the overall governance system. According to Taimur Saleem Jhagra, KP government is going to introduced two innovative approaches ‘development plus budget’ and ‘service delivery budget’ under which Rs. 500 billion would be spent on Service delivery focusing on mega projects such as Sehat Plus Cards, provision of furniture to Govt schools and increase in medicines budget to public sector hospitals whereas Rs. 424 billion would be spent on the development Plus initiative with priorities to payment of salaries of government employees etc. The minister said Rs. 1018 billion revenue and income targets were set for FY 2021-22 that would be achieved from different financial resources, duties, and taxes. The PTI government in KP had presented its overall 8th budget during two consecutive terms in office and 3rd budget during the current term. The budget was largely formatted on the lines of the central government’s budget estimate and sufficient development funds have been allocated under different heads during the upcoming fiscal year.
Special focus was given to the social sector, increase in payment and pension of government servants, agriculture sector, Ehsaas Program, and others.
Despite ruling the province for a second term, the PTI government could not initiate any mega project like BRT. There is urgent need of medical and educational facilities in less developed and newly merged Districts such as Upper Dir and Chitral and Kohistan etc. The people of these districts rush to Peshawar and Abbottabad for medical and educational needs. Furthermore, there are huge prospects of tourism in almost all Districts of the KP, but no initiative has been undertaken by the provincial government to utilize this potential for revenue generation. The other avenues which need more attention are digitization of land records, industrialization, and full operationalization of the Sehat Card project of the provincial government. Today, unplanned growth of our cities, unapproved construction of buildings and encroachment are the emerging problems of the province. It is ripe time for the Provincial government of PTI to prove its worth during the remaining two years of its term in office. The KP government has all essential resources, capabilities, manpower and sufficient time to make history, however only resilience of the leadership can make this miracle.
