Punjab unveils Rs 2.24 trillion tax-free, pro-business budget.

LAHORE: The Punjab government on Monday presented budget for fiscal year 2020-21 with a total outlay of 2.24 trillion amid protest and walkout by the opposition.

The provincial budget was presented by Finance Minister MakhdoomHashimJawanBakht at a local hotel, which had already been declared as Punjab Assembly chambers. The finance minister started his speech by criticizing the economic policies of the previous governments, adding that the Covid-19 outbreak has also severely hit the economy in the past few months. He said that the PTI government made a good start of the ongoing fiscal year but the Covid-19 hampered the growth. "The taxes of FBR were increased by 13 percent while the current account deficit was decreased by 71 percent as compared to last year's... but then the Covid-19 came," he said.

The finance minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan launched Ehsaas Emergency Programme with a package of 144 billion to give relief to the poor hit by Covid-19, adding that Punjab contributed a hefty amount of Rs8.4 billion to the initiative. He said Punjab arranged Rs43 billion immediately to deal with Covid-19, which also includes Rs18 billion tax relief package for the business community.

He said Rs106 billion have been allocated in the budget to deal with coronavirus. It includes direct expenditure of Rs50 billion while Rs56 billion are related to tax relief package given to different sectors.

He said Punjab is likely to get Rs1433 billion under the NFC award this year. The own resource revenue is estimated at Rs317 billion which it will collect from provincial taxes.

The finance minister gave seven priorities of the budget which include tax relief package, decrease in ongoing expenditures, economic stability, social protection, human capital development, agriculture and public private partnership. He said that the tax relief package of more than Rs56 billion has been given this year which is the highest in the history of Punjab. The GST on health insurance, consultancy fee of doctors and hospitals is proposed at zero percent. The services tax is decreased from 16 percent to 5 percent on small hotels, guest houses, marriage halls, catering, property dealers, photography and parking sectors. The property tax can be paid in two installments during the next fiscal year.

An amount of Rs337 billion has been earmarked for the development programs. It includes Rs97.6 billion for social sector, Rs77.8 billion for infrastructure development, Rs17.3...