Punjab caretaker cabinet approves Rs2,073bn budget for four months
Business
Earlier, the interim govt had presented a budget for July-Oct period
LAHORE (Dunya News) – The caretaker cabinet in Punjab on Monday approved a Rs2,073 billion budget for the next five months to run the affairs in the province which is witnessing long period of interim setup since the dissolution of provincial assembly on Jan 14 earlier this year.
The meeting was chaired by Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin as the cabinet members went through the details of non-development and development expenditure as well as sectoral allocations of funds.
WHY A FOUR-MONTH BUDGET?
Previously, the caretaker government had presented for a four-month period [July-Oct] as there was a confusion on when the elections would be held, necessitating the second instalment of budget.
It is because of the fact that the Article 126 of the Constitution clearly stipulates that the caretaker government may be authorised expenditures for a period not exceeding four months.
That's why earlier in June, the provincial caretaker government had presented a Rs1,719.3bn budget for first four months of the fiscal year 2023-24.
The document read that Punjab would receive Rs881bn tax receipts from federal government with its own contribution of Rs194bn.
At the same time, no new taxes were imposed in the budget while development expenditure allocations stood at Rs325bn.
DEVELOPMENT ALLOCATIONS
Later on Monday afternoon, Caretaker Information Minister Amir Mir, addressed a press conference to share the budget details and said the amount reserved for development budget was Rs351bn for the ongoing schemes.
It means the non-development expenditure during the Nov-Feb period will stand at Rs1,722 out of the total budget outlay of Rs2,073bn.
ILLEGAL FOREIGNERS
He said the crackdown against foreigner staying illegally in the province as decided by the federal governemnt would start from Nov 1 like other parts of the country and Rs400 million had been reserved for the purpose. These people would be first shifted to camps for their deportation later, Mir added.
ELECTIONS
About the upcoming general elections, the Punjab minister said 50,000 polling stations were being established across the province, as he reiterated the stance that the caretaker government would fully assist the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in holding free and fair polls.
Mir promised that the elections would be held on time [to be decided by the ECP] and assured of the caretaker setup providing extra security to the foreign observers monitoring the electoral process.
Last week, the ECP had invited foreigner observers and media persons interested in covering the general elections in Pakistan, while also setting some conditions for them, which included security clearance.
SMOG AND LONGER WEEKEND
During the press conference, the provincial cabinet members were also asked about the steps being taken to deal with smog – a serious environmental and health issue that surfaces every year in late autumn and continues well into winter in the absence of rains.
Answering various queries, Excise and Taxation Minister Bilal Afzal said there won’t be any additional weekly holiday on Wednesday – a suggestion considered at the government level but later binned due to the complications it will generate amid the opposition especially by traders.
However, the minister informed reporters that the government was having consultations on whether to declare Monday a holiday, thus resulting a long weekend.
The idea behind this proposal is that the pollution level reaches its highest level during the first three days – Monday to Wednesday – of the week as more and more people travel for daily businesses after the weekend.
Studies have repeated shown that vehicular traffic is the main source of pollution causing smog in cities like Lahore as there is a lack of mass transit systems, meaning people rely on personal cars.
