Punjab total budget outlay Rs500 billion

By: Salman Abduhoo

LAHORE - Punjab Finance Minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira has said the total outlay of the Punjab budget 2009-10 will be approximately Rs 500 billion while Annual Development Programme will range between Rs 160 to Rs 200 billion.
He was talking to a selected group of journalists at Punjab Planning and Development Department office on Friday.
He said over 600,000 people were unemployed due to electricity loadshedding and domestic recession in Punjab only.
The minister said the present government was quite conscious of the problems being faced by the masses in the wake of acute energy shortage, law and order situation and high mark up rates, adding that the provincial government would take necessary measures in the upcoming budget to ensure relief to industries as well as agriculture, which is the backbone of the country.
He informed the journalists that the government would initiate the mass transit project in the next fiscal year and Rs 2 billion had been allocated for the purpose, while Iran was ready to provide free of cost technical assistance for the project. He further said the mass transit project costing approximately $2 billion would be completely underground.
Tanvir Ashraf Kaira said around Rs 40 billion are being allocated for security measures in the next fiscal budget and the Punjab government has sought Rs 3 billion from the federal government to control terrorism in the province. He said the provincial government had planned providing bulletproof jackets to policemen and equip them with state of the art arms, besides training them in view of the prevailing prospects.
He told the journalists that the federal government had promised to share the foreign aid being issued to control terrorism with the provinces.

The Nation .June 13 ,2009