KARACHI: The Sindh cabinet on Tuesday approved the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 with an outlay of Rs1.47 trillion.
Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah presided over a special meeting of the provincial cabinet to discuss and approve the budget which will in the Sindh Assembly session.
The provincial government’s spokesperson Murtaza Wahab said that the cabinet approved an increase of 20 percent in salaries of government employees and set the minimum monthly wage at Rs25,000. He said no new tax is being introduced in the budget 2021-22 by the provincial government.
#Sindh Cabinet has approved an increase of 20% in the salary of Govt employees & also set the minimum wage at 25,000 in the province. No new tax is being introduced by #SindhGovt #SindhBudget
— Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui (@murtazawahab1) June 15, 2021
The Provincial Assembly of Sindh’s budget-2021-22 session has been summoned to meet at 3PM. Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Minister, will present the budget statement for the year 2021-22 and the supplementary budget statement for the year 2020-21.
The Sindh government is expected to present a no-tax budget in the provincial legislature In the annual budget Rs 222 billion allocation has been earmarked for the development programmes.
The government has proposed a 25 percent raise in salaries of the government employees up to Grade 15 and pensions. The minimum wage for the labourers is expected to be set at Rs25,000.
The provincial government is also expected a special development package for Karachi in the new budget, with an allocation of Rs24 billion for launching ten new megaprojects. The budget papers propose 55 percent allocation of total development budget for education, health, and law and order.
Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that the provincial budget would be expenditure-oriented with an increase in development spending as Rs300 billion was being allocated.
He said that health, education and social protection will be in the primary focus in the budget. He added that districts would get increased allocation for their development portfolios and local council budgets were also increased.
He also said that the minimum wages in the province would be increased more than that of the federal government’s announcement in its budget. He said salaries of provincial government employees would be increased by 25 percent.
