Punjab govt to unveil around Rs1.2 trillion budget today

LAHORE (Web Desk/Agencies) - Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha will unveil the annual budget of Punjab province for the fiscal year 2015-16 along with the supplementary budget statement for the financial year 2014-2015 before the provincial assembly at 2pm today (Friday).

It should be mentioned here that Dr. Pasha has been recently appointed as finance minister on May 29.

The budget with an estimated outlay of Rs1.2 trillion, give or take a few billions, allocating more than Rs400 billion for development programme.

Speaker Rana Iqbal Khan will chair the budget session.

Punjab Governor Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana summoned the provincial assembly's 15th session on last Monday which is in progress and it would continue till end of the current month.

This is eighth consecutive budget of the Pakistan Muslims League-Nawaz’s provincial government.

As per report, over Rs.400 billion will be apportioned for the development projects. Meantime, 36 percent of the development budget will be set aside for uplift projects in South Punjab.

As much as 70 percent of funds will be spent on the ongoing projects and the remaining 30 percent will be kept aside for the new projects.

Last year, the PML-N Punjab government had presented Rs1.2 trillion budget and had allocated same 36 percent of the development budget for South Punjab.