MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Friday approved a budget of Rs 73.5 billion for the next fiscal year.
On the same day, Finance Minister Latif Akbar presented it in the house by suspending the rules as the opposition was not interested to start any discussion on it due to electioneering.
The minister presented the budget having an allocation of Rs 61 billion for current expenditures and an amount of Rs 12.5 billion for development schemes.
Soon after the finance minister’s speech, which lasted for about two hours, Akbar moved a motion to suspend the rules of the house and approve the budget as whole without any debate which was adopted within minutes and the house was prorogued.
The minister read out a lengthy speech due to an increase of rupees (half a billion) in the development outlay as compare to the current fiscal year’s budget. A 10 percent increase in salaries of the government employees and pension of retired employees was also announced by the minister.
