Balochistan budget for next fiscal year 2024-25 will be presented in the provincial assembly in Quetta on Friday (today), reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Balochistan Finance Minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani will present the budgetary proposals in the provincial assembly at 04:00 pm.

The provincial government is going to present a 850 billion rupees surplus budget for year 2024-25 which would be a people-friendly budget.

Provincial ministers including Mir Zahoor Buledi, Mir Shoaib Noshirwani and government spokesman Shahid Rand had recently disclosed the budget details, saying 25 percent has been allocated for education and 10 percent for health, this time, an allocation of Rs58b was kept for Balochistan in the Federal PSPD, the salaries of employees up to grade 16 would be increased by 25 percent while for those above grade 17 by 20 percent.

Provincial Planning and Development Minister Mir Zahoor Buledi said that more than 9,000 schemes were included in the previous budget of Balochistan, it was difficult for the province to run them.

He said that the provincial government has done a major surgery of PSDP and put the unnecessary schemes in the cold storage, saying that the upcoming budget would be according to public needs, welfare.

The provincial government is giving priority to health and education, we are going to increase the budget of the education sector by 25 percent, under the Benazir Scholarship Program in the province and stipends will be given to PhD candidates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and accounting, while children of civilian martyrs to be provided free education from 1st to 16th standard, he underlined.

He said that the grant of universities was going to be increased from 2.5 billion to 5 billion, and Rs2b would be kept for admitting children out of schools in the province.

The minister said that they would build a hospital in the style of Gumbat Hospital in Naseerabad Division, a satellite hospital would be established in Quetta on the model of NICVD.

Rs991m for handing over the hospital in Bekar to Indus Hospital, a grant of Rs1.7b for Sheikh Zayed Hospital for Cardiology, burn units in 15 districts at a cost of Rs700 million, a total of Rs581m will be spent on breast cancer treatment with Roche, while Rs505m for health card grant, he noted.

Mir Zahoor Ahmed Buledi said that connecting GDA Hospital with Indus Hospital would cost Rs1.2 bln, PPL Hospital was going to be handed over to Indus Hospital at a cost of Rs782m.

He said that the allocation of Balochistan in the federal PSDP has been increased to 58 bln rupees, we have registered a protest in the National Economic Council after which the decision to withdraw provincial level schemes from the federal PSDP has been withdrawn.

He said that no federal project was completed in Balochistan for 15 years, the federal portfolio of the province was 1600 bln, 10 percent allocation was given every year, in the current financial year, only 43 percent of the amount was released, which was Rs59b.

He said that only Rs6b were given for the provincial schemes, which badly affected the federal projects.

The minister said that this time an amount of Rs58b has been kept, 17 bln for the Quetta-Karachi highway, Rs 8 bln on two levels for Hoshab Auran highway, Rs 3 bln for Nokundi-Mashkil Highway, 3.5 bln for Zhob-Kuchlak Road, 10 bln for Kachchi Canal, Rs 5 bln has been earmarked for Turbat-Mand Road, while a project of Rs 40 bln has been included for the road from Gwadar Panjgur Mashkil to Afghanistan, he said.

In response to a question, he said that the federal government has made substantial plans for Balochistan which were encouraged, a grant of Rs400b rupees would be provided for the rehabilitation of flood victims.

He said that due to the Eid holidays, the budget has been delayed to present it uninterruptedly.

He said that those who were ready for negotiations by recognizing Pakistan’s ideals and constitution would negotiate with them, we could solve our problems by sitting together.

Speaking on the occasion, Provincial Finance Minister Mir Shoaib Noshirwani said that Balochistan had a development budget of 229 bln rupees in the budget of the current financial year, out of which 129 bln rupees would be spent by the end of this month.

The province was supposed to get 55 bln rupees from PPL, which was not received. There was a budget deficit of 49 bln rupees in the province so this amount has not lapsed, he said.

He said that the budget of the next financial year would be more than 850 bln rupees, which could be people-friendly and the fruits of which would reach the people.

He said that the salaries of employees from grade 1 to 16 would be increased by 25 percent and grades 17 to 22 by 20 percent and pension by 15 percent.

The minister said that the provincial revenues would be Rs121 bln with an increase of 8 percent, provincial taxes would enhance by 18 percent from Rs 38 bln to Rs 48 bln, Non-tax income could boost by 2% to 18.5 bln rupees.

He said that in 2023-24, Rs2.25b have been received from Reko Diq project, PPL would pay Rs58b in installments in the next financial year.

He said that in the non-development budget, 25 percent of the budget to be allocated for education and 10 percent for health, adding that the local council grant was going to be increased from 16 bln to 35 bln, 40 billion and 10 billion rupees would be provided by the provincial government for subsidy in the form of solar tube wells for the landowners.

He said that the livelihood of 52 percent of the population of the province was agriculture saying that Rs 14 bln could be amplified in other 25 funds of the provincial government including Women’s Skill Development, Employee Housing Fund, Employee Retirement.

He said that Grant-in-Aid was going to be boosted from Rs 49 bln to Rs 93 bln including 5 billion rupees for climate change, 3.4 billion rupees for WASA, Rs 2.3 bln for cadet colleges and Rs5b for universities.

Reporter Essa Tareen