KP Budget 22-23 Announced with Rs.3 Billion For ST and IT Dept.

The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has allocated Rs.3billion for ST and IT (Science and Information Technologies) in the budget 2022-23. The government  on June 13th presented the budget, with an outlay of Rs.1,332 billion for the fiscal year 2022-23 and Rs.350 billion for development schemes.

In these challenging times KP government has managed to allocate a historic budget for many development programs in different sectors like health sector, education and infrastructure.

The budget allocation is such that a total of Rs.770.3 million will be spent on ST and IT, Rs.5 million for the development of Youth Skills (YSD). The Science and Information Technology funds will be used for the setting up different Technological Zones and start ups of IT parks in the different districts of KP.

While delivering the Budget speech, the KP Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra announced an increase  of 16% in salaries and a 15% in pension of the government employees. Below are some of the major new initiatives of the Budget 2022-23.

• For the erstwhile FATA a total of Rs.223 billion has been proposed
• An increase of Rs.55 billion have been suggested in the Health budget.
• Rs.47 billion increase has been suggested for the Education budget.
• An increase in the budget for the Martyrs of the Police department aka Shuhada Package (who died in the line of duty and scarified  heir lives for the protection of the civilians)
• Contributory Pension Scheme

The Finance Minister while addressing the Budget session refuted all the plans that suggested finishing the pension programme for the government employee. Instead a new scheme for the new government employees have been suggested by the name “Contributory Pension Scheme”. According to the new scheme 10% of the basic salary of the new government employees will be added to their pension fund on monthly basis.

For the development of the province (including the settled districts and merged tribal districts) a total of Rs.418.2 billion has been allotted.

The KP Finance Minister while delivering the budget said that Rs.447.9 billion will be spent on salaries whereas for pension a total of Rs.107 billion will be spent.

The budget has got mixed reviews. It has been criticized by the opposition. With time we will see if the allocated budget will be sigh of relief or a tight knot around our necks.

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