Punjab announces up to 25pc raise in salary in budget 2024-25

The Punjab budget with a total outlay of 5,446 billion rupees was presented in the provincial assembly in Lahore this afternoon.

Punjab Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman, while unveiling the budgetary proposals, stated that no new taxes have been imposed for the next fiscal year. He mentioned that revenue collection is expected to increase by fifty-three percent through other means.

Shuja ur Rehman announced that the next Annual Development Programme (ADP) will amount to 842 billion rupees, including seventy-seven new mega projects.

He set the revenue target for the next fiscal year at 960 billion rupees and announced several key changes:

Minimum wages will be increased from thirty-two thousand rupees to forty thousand rupees.

Salaries of government employees will be increased by twenty to twenty-five percent, and pensions by fifteen percent.

The Minority Development Fund will see its first increase by one billion rupees.

Six billion rupees have been allocated for the laptop scheme.

Five billion rupees are set aside for the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Transplant Institute Endowment Fund.

The finance minister highlighted that the inflation rate has been reduced to 11.8 percent and significant cuts are being made in government expenditures. He also mentioned revolutionary measures in the health sector and the provision of free Wi-Fi facilities at several locations in Punjab.

Shuja ur Rehman announced that solar panels will be provided to electricity consumers using up to one hundred units and easy loans will be available for those building houses up to five marlas.

Earlier today, the Punjab cabinet approved the tax-free budget for the next fiscal year in a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz in Lahore. Addressing the meeting, the Chief Minister emphasized that all efforts will be made to fulfill the promises made to the people.