QUETTA: The government of Balochistan on Friday presented a budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 with a total outlay of Rs 955 billion.
Provincial Finance Minster Mir Shoaib Nosherwani presented the budget, proposing up to 25 percent raise in salaries of government employees.
The PSDP development budget of the province is valued at Rs 321 billion. According to the budget documents, the total estimated income is Rs 955 billion with expenses of Rs 930 billion.
The budget is presented with a surplus of Rs 25 billion. As per the budget documents, Rs 564 billion has been earmarked for current expenditures, while the development budget under PSDP is estimated at Rs 321 billion.
Similarly, Rs 126 billion has been allocated for the Education sector and Rs 57 billion for the Health sector.
Total of Rs 667 billion is expected to be received from the federal government under the National Finance Commission (NFC) while the province’s own revenue is estimated at Rs 124 billion.
Raise in salaries
The finance minister announced that the government has proposed up to 25 percent increase in salaries of its employees.
Mir Shoaib Nosherwani said that employees from grade 1 to 16 would receive 25 increase in salaries while a 22 percent rise has proposed for employees from grade 17 to 22. Meanwhile the provincial government proposed a 15 percent increase in pensions for retired employees.
According to the budget more than Rs 138 billion has been allocated for General Public Service, Rs 93.12 billion for law and order, Rs 79.36 billion for economic affairs, Rs 49.92 billion for housing and commencement facilities, over Rs 57 billion for health, Rs 6 billion for culture and religious affairs, Rs 126.26 billion for education sector, Rs 13.35 billion for social security sector, Rs 13 billion for pensions and Rs 219 billion for development.
It is to be noted that the federal government, Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments have already unveiled budgets for the FY2024-25.
Earlier, the Balochistan Cabinet approved the budget proposal for the next financial year 2024-25 in a pre-budget Cabinet meeting at CM House.
