Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly on Tuesday approved the state’s Rs141.4 billion surplus budget for fiscal year 2021-22 within hours of its presentation by Finance Minister Dr Najeeb Naqi while suspending rules governing the issue, reported Dawn.
The fifth and last budget of the PML-N government estimated an income of Rs114.4 billion from different internal and external resources during the next fiscal year, of which Rs113.4 billion was proposed for recurring expenditures and Rs1.018 billion for the overdraft adjustment.
It proposed Rs28 billion, to be provided by the government of Pakistan, for the annual development program me (ADP) which includes foreign aid of Rs2 billion. The budget session was presided over by Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir and his Deputy Sardar Aamer Altaf, with 20 lawmakers in attendance, as the majority of them preferred to stay in their constituencies to concentrate on their election campaign.
Dr Naqi said the government estimated to generate Rs31.5 billion in tax revenue – Rs22.6 billion as income tax and Rs8.9 billion as provincial taxes (excise duty and so on), Rs59.5 billion as 3.64pc share in the federal taxes pool (variable grant), Rs22.1 billion from the state’s internal resources (mainly electricity), Rs700 million from water-use charges and Rs600 million from capital receipts (loans and advances).
