Punjab cabinet approves annual budget 2022-23

On Monday, the provincial cabinet adopted the annual budget for the fiscal year 2022-23, as well as yearly development funds.

The cabinet passed a Rs 3.226 trillion budget bill for 2022-23 with approval of amended estimates for 2021-22 at a meeting chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz.

In addition to raising pensions, the meeting approved an increase in salary for provincial employees. Employees were also approved for a 15 per cent special allowance.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for delivering free drugs to cancer patients across the province was approved at the session.

The meeting also ratified the decisions made at the Punjab cabinet’s previous meeting.

The chief minister praised the work of provincial ministers, the chairman of the planning and development committee, the secretary of finance, and other authorities in creating the best budget documents.

He stated that the budget included concrete steps to provide true relief to the public.

The cabinet has approved a Rs164.26 billion budget for infrastructure development projects. A total of 177 billion rupees has been set allocated for the development of roads.

In the meantime, the cabinet authorised a planned allocation of Rs164.26 billion for infrastructure development projects. One hundred and seventy-seven billion rupees has been set aside for road construction.

According to the records, Rs27.63 billion has been put aside for irrigation, Rs5 billion has been set aside for energy, and Rs41.4 billion has been set away for production.

The provincial finance ministry has proposed allocating Rs29.5 billion for public buildings, as well as more than Rs21 billion for urban development.

The government of Punjab has set aside Rs14.77 billion for agriculture, Rs4.5 billion for forests, approximately Rs1 billion each for wildlife and fisheries, and nearly Rs4 billion for the livestock and dairy sectors. While Rs6.2 billion has been set aside for governance and information technology (IT).