The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will announce the annual budget for fiscal year 2021-22 with an outlay of over Rs1 trillion Friday (today), reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The provincial government has spared more than Rs350 billion for the annual development plan.

It was also proposed in the budget to raise the salaries of grade 1 to 18 government employees by 25 percent while for grade 19 to 22 ten percent increase was suggested. These raises will bring in an additional burden of Rs40 billion on the provincial exchequer.

The minimum wage was also set at Rs21,000. More than Rs700 billion would be spent on current expenditure in the next fiscal.

Annual development programme (ADP) would have Rs150 billion provincial component and over Rs89 billion for donor funded projects. The ADP of the merged tribal districts has been suggested at over Rs30 billion.

Over 200 high impact development schemes would be completed by 2023 across the province. More than 700 ongoing projects have been prioritised for completion over next two years. 

The province will receive Rs36 billion from the Centre under the Accelerated Implementation Plan.

Eighty percent of the development funds will be spent on the ongoing projects where the remaining 20 percent will be spend on new schemes.

The revenue target was set at Rs75 billion, which was 50 percent more than the target for the last year.

It was also proposed to include Kissan Card and Ration Card schemes in the budget.

Rs500 billion will be allocated for the endowment fund set up to help artistes and actors.

Reporter Azmat Ali Shah