PESHAWAR: Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhang on Thursday congratulated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly for upholding democratic norms during the budget session and gave credit to both treasury and the opposition benches for avoiding any unparliamentarily incident.
Giving explanation to criticism and various questions raised by the opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani and other opposition MPAs on the budget 2021-22, the finance minister said that shortfall of budget is due to difference between budgetary receipts and actual receipts which existed in every previous budget.
He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the first province which bring transparency in the budget and everything is reflected in the budget paper including due share of the province from the federal government on pretext of net hydel profit and NFC share.
He said that no compromise would be made on rights of the province that is why all payable receipts are reflected in the budget.
The finance minster said that uniform housing allowance is introduced in the budget to remove disparity and anomalies in the house requisition policy.
He said that no a single penny of development budget allocated for merged district would be used in the settled districts, adding funds and grants for merged districts are not lapsed.
Taimur Jhagra said that amount for pensions and billion tree projects in merged is given by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.
Talking about Sehat Card Plus, he said that it is health system not only insurance, adding that figures shows that 600000 people will get free medical treatment in one year which means every 10th family is availing the facility.
He said that those hospitals involved in corrupt practices to make the health system controversial will be banned for ever, adding hospitals are empanelled purely on the merit for which he praised the administration of Sehat Card Plus.
He said that many taxes are reduced and abolished so it is wrong to say it is IMF dictated or bureaucratic budget .
He said it is only pro-people and development budget to bring prosperity and development in the province.
The finance minster said that Rs. 2 billion have been allocated for Higher Education department which showing the government serious about education sector.
He expressed his reservation about the quality of education in universities by saying that more universities are opened in the province with little attention i to improve quality of education.
He said that the government is focused to increase revenue through its own resources to give more relief to people.
Earlier, MPA Arif Ahmedzai, Babar Salim Swati, Humayoon Khan, Zaheer Abbasi, Arshid Ayub Khan, Farid Salahuddin, Pakhtunyar Khan , Safiullah Khan, Changez Khan praised the positive role and cooperation of the opposition during the budget session and peaceful atmosphere in the budget session.