The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa presented Rs 923 billion tax-free budget with a maximum allocation of Rs124billion for health, Rs317.8bln for development expenditure including Rs221.9 billion for settled districts and Rs95.9 billion for merged tribal districts.
Finance Minister Taimour Salim Jhagra delivered the budget for the financial year 2020-21 in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, he said that total outlay of the budget was pitched Rs923 billion including Rs739.1 billion for settled districts and Rs183.9billion for merged districts.
The Finance Minister said that a total of Rs605.2 billion were allocated for settled ie Rs517.2 billion and merged districts ie Rs88 billion for ongoing expenditures.
He also said a total of Rs317.8 billion were earmarked including Rs221.9 billion for settled districts and Rs95.9 billion for merged districts Regarding development expenditures.
The Minister said a record Rs124 billion were allocated for the health sector for settled and merged districts, adding the budget for settled districts have increased from Rs87 billions of outgoing fiscal to Rs105.9 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.
For development budget in the health sector, he said a total of Rs24.4 billion were allocated including Rs13.8 billion for settled district andRs10.6 for merged tribal districts.
He said Govt will focus to ensure adequate stock of equipment, medicines and increasing strength of doctors in public sector hospitals besides providing Sehat Insaf cards to every family of the province and in this regard Rs10 billion were allocated.
Rs36 billion earmarked for MTI hospitals including Rs26 billion for MTIs current budget and Rs4 billion for completion of key projects besides Rs six billion for special demand funds for improving the healthcare system in major hospitals, he stated.
Shortage of infrastructure and equipment in basic health units would be overcome and for this purpose, Rs13 billion project would be launched in collaboration with World Bank.
Similarly, the budget has been increased from Rs2.5 billion to four billion rupees for the procurement of medicines in healthcare facilities besides acquiring services of private sectors with an allocation of Rs one billion for waste management of hospitals.
