Punjab government has presented a public friendly provincial budget with a total volume of 2653 billion Rupees for next fiscal year.

Presenting the budget in the provincial assembly in Lahore, Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht said the total volume of next fiscal year's budget is eighteen percent higher than the last budget.

He said under the NFC Award, funds worth 1684 billion rupees will be transferred to Punjab from the Federal Government.

He said a target of 405 billion rupees has been set for Provincial Receipts.

The minister said the amount of current expenditure has been estimated as 1428 billion rupees. The Punjab Finance Minister said that 560 Billion Rupees are being allocated for a record annual development program, which is sixty six percent more than ongoing development programs. 

He said that 205.5 Billion Rupees have been allocated for the social sector including education and health, while 145 Billion Rupees for infrastructure development. He said that 91 Billion rupees have been allocated for special programs while 57.9 Billion rupees for production sectors including industries, agriculture, livestock, tourism and forests.

He said that during Covid situation, Punjab introduced a package worth 106 Billion rupees for economic restoration of public, which included a tax relief worth 56 Billion rupees to the business community.

Hashim Jawan Bakht said that the Punjab Government has decided to raise salaries of its employees and pensions of retired employees by ten percent. Grade 1 to Grade 19 employees, who have not been granted additional allowance of any kind earlier, will be granted a twenty percent increase in their salaries on account of Special Allowance.

He announced to raise the monthly wages of laborers from 17500 to 20000 rupees.