Govt employees salary, pension increased; Shuhada Package announced; Rs26b subsidy for Insaf Food Card holders; Contributory Pension Scheme for new govt employees
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday presented a Rs1,332 billion “balanced budget” for the financial year 2022-23, including an allocation of Rs1108.9 billion for settled districts and Rs223.1 billion for merged tribal districts.
Presenting the incumbent government’s fourth budget on the floor of the Khyber Pakthunkhwa Assembly, Finance Minister Taimur Salim Jhagra announced a 16% increase in the salaries of government employees and 15% raise in pensions. He also announced to increase Shuhada Package.
The finance minister maintained that the government has decided to introduce the “Contributory Pension Scheme” for new government employees.
The minister said that 10% of the basic salary of the new government employees would be added to the pension fund on a monthly basis, adding that the total development budget of KP was Rs418.2 billion — including Rs319.2 billion for settled districts and Rs99 billion for merged tribal districts.
Mr Jhagra said that tax revenue from federal government would amount to Rs537 billion. While Rs319.2 billion have been proposed for the development budget.
He said that Rs4.9 billion have been set aside for the improvement of climate change. Higher education will get Rs34 billion.
The finance minister said that the tax recoveries by the KP government were phenomenal during the outgoing fiscal, adding that foreign investors are making Rs86 billion investments in the province.
He said that Rs14 billion have been earmarked under the head of law and justice; Rs1.8 billion set aside for information technology; Rs1 billion for labour; Rs3.6 billion for population welfare; Rs23 billion for relief department; Rs820.3 million for housing; Rs22 billion for sport; and Rs2 billion have been allocated for climate change.
The KP finance minister said the provincial government has made a 15% increase in the allowances of police, rescue, and forest department officials.
Earlier, the KP cabinet met on Monday and gave approval to Rs1.332 trillion budget for the province.
The cabinet also approved a Shuhada Package for the Rescue officials who lost their lives while putting out wildfire in the KP forests. Besides them, the forest department officials who also died during firefighting efforts in forests would get Rs1 million each.
The provincial cabinet approved a 15% raise in the salaries of provincial government employees working in BPS 1 to 19 and also okayed a 15% hike in pensions. Police department is also included in this category.
For the first time in province’s history, the cabinet regularized 63,000 employees.
The cabinet approved Rs26 billion subsidy for the provision of Insaf Food Card so that one million deserving families could buy food items at discounted rates.
From Jan 2022, the medical treatment of five diseases including transplantation of liver will be included in Health Card Plus. The cabinet also approved Rs418 billion development budget.
