Lahore: Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghous-Pasha presented the provincial budget for fiscal year 2015-2016 (FY15-16) in the Punjab Assembly on Friday.
Dr Ayesha Ghous-Pasha is the first female finance minister to present the budget to the Punjab Assembly.
Power projects
Dr Ghous-Pasha announced a Rs110 billion 1,200 megawatt gas-fired power project in Sheikhupura for which Rs15bn will be allocated in FY15-16.
Four 150MW power projects will be set up in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and Sialkot for which Rs90bn will be allocated in the upcoming fiscal year.
Natural resources
The Punjab government has allocated Rs2.17bn for the development of iron and copper deposits, specifically in Chiniot-Rajwa. The project has been handed to a well-known Chinese company.
Agriculture
Rs52bn has been allocated in FY15-16 for the building of new roads from farms to marketplaces to facilitate transportation of agricultural produce.
Another Rs21bn has been set aside for the improvement of irrigation systems in Punjab under the Punjab Irrigated Agricultural Productivity Improvement project, in which 120,000 acres will be irrigated through drip sprinklers and 7,000 water courses will be renovated ─ for which Rs4.98bn has been allocated in FY15-16.
Earlier on Friday the Punjab Assembly Cabinet had approved a Rs1.22 trillion estimated provincial budget outlay for the FY15-16.
The budget allocates over Rs400 billion to development, Rs290bn to education, Rs800bn to non-development expenditure, Rs31bn to the power sector, Rs119bn to the social sector, Rs5bn to roads, and Rs39bn to the services sector.
Punjab government officials said that the annual development budget would focus on mega infrastructural projects in the road, transport and energy sectors like the Orange Metro Line for Lahore, Lahore Ring Road southern loop, an LNG-based power project, a Metro Bus project for Multan, and the Farm to Market roads project. It is expected to allocate Rs10bn each for these projects during the next financial year.
Following Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s approval in the cabinet, the approved budget is set to be presented to the Punjab Assembly.
The development outlay for FY15-16 will be Rs54bn less than the size the provincial government had envisaged in its rolling, three-year medium-term development framework (MTDF). The MTDF had pitched development investment in the province at Rs454bn.
