LAHORE: A tax-free people-friendly Punjab budget for next fiscal year with a total outlay of over Rs1,970 billion was presented in Punjab Assembly on Friday afternoon.
In her budget speech, Provincial Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha said despite all difficulties, a balanced budget has been presented. She said Punjab is expecting an income of eleven hundred fifty four billion rupees from the federal government, and there is an estimate of provincial revenue of three hundred and forty-eight billion rupees.
The provincial minister said a huge amount of six hundred and thirty five billion rupees with an increase of twenty-nine point five percent has been proposed for annual development programme.
Ayesha Ghaus Pasha said fifty-nine percent of total budget has been allocated for education, health, agriculture, law and order and local governments, and one thousand seventeen billion rupees have been allocated for these sectors.
She proposed ten percent raise in the salaries of the provincial government employees and pensions. She said the minimum monthly wages of labourers and industrial workers will now be Rs15,000.
