Budget 2019-20: Sindh govt approves 15 percent increase in salary, pension

Budget 2019-20: Sindh govt approves 15 percent increase in salary, pension

Karachi: Sindh government on Friday presented Rs1,217 billion provincial budget for the financial year 2019-20.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah presented the budget in the provincial assembly. He announced an increase of 15 percent in salary and pension of the government employees across the board.

Sindh’s revenue targets were revised from Rs243.082 billion to Rs240.746 billion.

The total receipts are estimated at Rs1.217 trillion against an estimated expenditure of Rs1.217 trillion.

Allocations for school education were increased from Rs170.832 billion to Rs178.618 billion in the budget.

Ahead of the budget, the provincial cabinet met and approved the budget for 2019-20 and finance bill 2019.

Earlier, the Punjab government also presented its budget with a total outlay of over 2300 billion rupees for the financial year 2019-20 in the provincial assembly.

Provincial minister for finance, Makhdoom Hasim Jawan Bakht, presented the 2019-20 budget in the PA. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and other provincial cabinet members were also present in the house.

Presenting budget, Bakht said that out of total volume, 350 billion rupees are reserved for development while 1717 billion rupees for non-development purpose.

He said that an estimate of collections worth 1990 billion rupees has been ascertained for General Revenue Receipts.

Punjab is expected to receive an amount of 1601 billion 460 million rupees from Federal Government as its share from National Finance Commission Award.

A 10 percent increase has been proposed for Grade 16 employees, while a five percent increase has been recommended for Grade 17-20. No increase has been proposed for Grade 20 and 21 officers.

However, the provincial government decided to impose 10pc cut on the salaries of provincial ministers.