AJK govt unveils Rs94.14 billion budget

MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) presented on Thursday its budget for fiscal year 2017-18 with a development outlay of more than Rs22 billion, almost double compared to the current fiscal year's.

The budget was presented by AJK Minister for Finance and Planning Dr Najeeb Naqi in the legislative assembly, where he also reviewed the expenditures for the current fiscal year.

The total volume of the budget is Rs94.41 billion with more than Rs12 billion as deficit that would be met with the assistance of the federal government while current expenditures amount to more than Rs71 billion.

For the first time, the budget allocated Rs23.28 billion for development projects whereas Rs71.13 billion have been allocated for non-development schemes.

The legislative assembly met with Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir in the chair at a temporary hall in Member's Hostel as the assembly building is proposed to be reconstructed for which an amount has been allocated in the federal public sector development programme of the coming fiscal year's budget.

The total income of the government during the next fiscal year has been estimated as Rs82 billion from which Rs20.8 billion has been estimated for its own resources, taxes share from Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council is expected to be Rs14.3 billion, an amount of Rs1.3 billion has been estimated in the head of Mangla water use charges, while share from federal divisible pool has been estimated at Rs26 billion.