PESHAWAR, May 30 (APP):Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday has rejected the provincial budget of the PTI government for financial year 2024-25 saying it would multiply the financial woes of the people.
Addressing a press conference at Peshawar Press Club (PPC), the Deputy Secretary Information PPP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Gohar Inqilabi said that budget used to be annual economic planning covering financial estimates for the whole year, so it should be based on actual facts and figures and not on mere assumptions.
He said that being a federal parliamentary system, the provincial governments were used to present their annual budgets after its announcement by the federal government. However, this year, he said the PTI government in KP violated this tradition announced it ahead the federal government.
The PPP leader said that before the budget, the session of the provincial assembly was delayed to prevent the oath taking of the women and minorities legislators on reserve seats and now they want to pass it before the decision of the higher judiciary over the issue.
He said that due to the poor economic planning, the own resources of the province are minimal and out of the 1754 billion rupees budget, it has a share of only Rs.93 billion and for the remaining huge amount of Rs.1642 billion it is dependent on the federal government, which requires good relations with the federal government.
“We want that the province should get outstanding arrears in all heads as both the federal and provincial governments are our own. However, for this purpose, the provincial government should take all political parties on board,” added the PPP activist.
Gohar Inqilabi said that the PTI government has increased various penalties, categorized wedding halls for taxes and imposed taxes on private schools and universities, which will directly affect the lives of the common man in the province.
Similarly, he said that through another step, the provincial government has also increased tobacco cess from Rs.6 per kilogram to Rs.50 per kilogram, which will affect the tobacco growers and support price of the crop.
Furthermore, he said that only 10 percent increase in the salaries during the current higher inflation has disappointed the of the government employees. He said that they were demanding a raise of at least 25% in the salaries from both federal and provincial governments to enable the government employees to compete the current rate of inflation.
The decision of the provincial government, he said has triggered protest by the government employees. Similarly, he said that the government has allocated a hefty amount of Rs.28 billion for the corruption ridden health card and called for diversion of the fund towards public sector hospitals to fully benefit the general public.
