Balochistan presents Rs613bn budget.

QUETTA -- The Balochistan government presented a deficit budget for the next fiscal year on Tuesday with a total outlay of Rs612.79 billion.

With the provincial income estimated at Rs540bn, the deficit would stand at Rs72.8bn, or around 12 per cent of the outlay. The budget sets aside 5.7pc and 3.7pc higher allocations for non-development and development heads, respectively, compared to the original estimates for the outgoing fiscal year.

In the budget for the outgoing year, the provincial government indicated a deficit of Rs84.7bn in its estimated resources and expenditure, which is projected to curtail the originally allocated provincial contribution to the development plan from Rs172.5bn to Rs91.8bn by the close of the year on June 30.

Thus, it is safe to assume that the failure to take in enough resources to fill the projected deficit, the province is likely to end up cutting its development stimulus by a huge margin next year as well.

Balochistan Finance Minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran presented the budget without facing any shouting from opposition members, who listened to the budget speech quietly and also thumbed desks on various occasions along with treasury benches during the budget speech.

The budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 was to be presented before the provincial assembly on Monday but was postponed at the eleventh hour as the treasury and opposition benches couldn't agree on the size of the provincial development programme. The budget session, scheduled for 4pm on Tuesday, was delayed...