PESHAWAR, Jun 19 (APP):The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has allocated Rs184billion for merged areas of erstwhile FATA in budget for financial year 2020-21 to bring this hitherto neglected area at par with developed districts of the country.
The Provincial Minister for Revenue Taimur Khan Jhagra unveiling the annual budget for Financial Year 2020-21 on Friday at provincial assembly said that this huge amount would be mainly spent on improvement and development of different sectors in merged areas.
Both the federal and provincial governments have already exempted the merged areas from taxes for a period of five years he said adding that this incentive to continue as a measure of relief and spurring greater economic activity.
The provincial government is set to expand the Sehat Insaaf Card on full scale to all families of merged areas. Rs901million would be disbursed to 3929 beneficiaries of Insaf Rozagar Scheme.
A robust measure for the expansion of new functions and services to the merged areas including expansion and strengthening of judiciary, policing, local government and social services has been taken. This includes the creation of 18,000 posts in different sectors during the current financial year 2019-20.
For 24/7 operation at Torkham Border, the KP government has been allocated Rs.26 billion for increase in exports and Rs3.5billion for increase in import duties.
The budget highlights allocation of Rs77 billion for boosting trade, economic growth, and creation of 60,000 to 100,000 jobs.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has also allocated three percent of NFC share as additional resources in line with commitment of Federal Government at time of merger.