Punjab govt presents a budget of over Rs. 2.2 trillion

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LAHORE: Provincial Finance Minister (FM) Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakhat presented the Punjab budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 in the provincial assembly.

Speaking at the floor, the Provincial FM informed that he said that the total outlay of the budget 2020-21 is around Rs 2.2 trillion.

According to details, the second provincial budget of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was presented in the Punjab Assembly. The budget was presented by the provincial finance minister Hashim Jawan Bakhat.

During the budget speech, the opposition made a lot of noise. The members of the assembly were holding anti-government banners in their hands. On the banners there were slogans of government failure, people upset, anti-labor budget, anti-poor budget unacceptable while slogans of sugar thief, flour thief were also put up in the house.

Meanwhile, Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervez Elahi while giving a rolling motion said that no point of order can be raised on the occasion of budget.

The provincial finance minister said that 7 new universities and upgrading of old universities were included in 7 districts. Plans are afoot to build roads from villages to cities. One billion rupees have been set aside for the supply of clean water.

Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakhat said that the Punjab government has set aside Rs 1 billion for New Pakistan Housing. At the local level, the municipal development program has been started at a cost of Rs 23 billion. More than Rs 8 billion has been set aside for the forest department.

He said that Rs. 13.30 billion has been earmarked for life staff and dairy development. Rs. 70 crore has been earmarked for rain-fed areas, more than Rs. 10 billion has been added in the budget of local governments.

The provincial finance minister said that it was proposed to save more than Rs 19 billion through pension reform. Expenditure on service delivery has also been reduced by more than Rs 10 billion. Necessary amendments to the Land Revenue Act, 1967 will be passed soon. A special discount of 5% will be given in case of online payment under e-portal. Presenting the budget, he said that more than Rs 4 billion has been earmarked for the improvement of 1122.

Hashim Jawan said that a huge amount of money has been set aside for the up-gradation of schools and more than Rs 37 billion has been set aside for the promotion of higher education. 24 billion has been earmarked for development projects. A total of 391 billion have been allocated for the education sector.

The provincial finance minister said that a special discount of 5% would be given in case of online payment under e-portal. 20% discount instead of 10% on full payment of vehicle registration and token tax is proposed. It is proposed to exempt all the cinemas from entertainment duty till June 30, 2021.

Hashim Jawan said that there would be a complete exemption on collection of surcharge for the financial year 2020-21. In case of full tax payment, taxpayers will be given a 10% discount instead of 5%.

He further said that Punjab has allocated Rs. 12 billion for health cards, health cards have been issued to 5 million people in 36 districts and 12,000 paramedical staff have been recruited. New blocks are being constructed in hospitals of different districts.

Continuing, he said that a state-of-the-art hospital would be built in Lahore. In the budget for the next financial year, Rs 284 billion has been allocated for health.

The provincial finance minister said that Rs 1 billion has been set aside for the welfare of women in 9 districts of Punjab and Rs 2 billion has been set aside for the development program of South Punjab. Rs. 4.90 billion has been set aside for skill development program.

He said that it was planned to launch a tribute program for civilian martyrs. 6 billion 87 crore has been allocated for technical training of youth. More than Rs 1 billion has been allocated for the skills program.

The provincial FM said that government expenditure has been reduced as much as possible this year as well. Our government has been pursuing a policy of austerity in its ongoing expenditure from the very beginning. Distributed Rs. 53 billion among 43.79 million families. Ehsas added a hefty sum of Rs 8.40 billion to the emergency program.

He further said that Rs. 240 billion of the development program had been released for expenditure in various sectors. In the meantime, the federal government has given a package of Rs 1.24 trillion.

He said that by the end of March 2020, Punjab’s on-source revenue had also increased by 23%.Rs 15 billion was being allocated for community development programs and projects under PP projects had been exempted from sales tax.

The provincial finance minister said that despite the economic challenges, no compromise would be made on the development program. In the financial year, Rs. 373 billion was allocated on the development budget. Public Private Partnership Authority has been set up.

He said that more than Rs 45 billion has been set aside for services. 0% tax is being levied on license fees for easy business. Necessary amendments will be made on land revenue soon, 20% discount is being given on lump sum registration of vehicles, 5% tax will be collected in case of transaction with debit card. It has increased the tax on more than 20 services from 16 to 5 percent. Announcing a tax relief package of Rs 56 billion.

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