An important meeting of the provincial cabinet was held under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, in which the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2025-26 was approved. In this budget, several important decisions were made keeping in mind the public welfare, development projects and the interests of government employees.

According to sources, the salaries of government employees are likely to increase by 10 to 12 percent, while pensions are likely to increase by 5 to 8 percent. Along with this, the minimum wage of a worker has been fixed at Rs 40,000 per month, which is being considered a welcome step in view of inflation.

The development budget has been significantly increased by 47.2 percent, and Rs1,240 billion has been allocated for this purpose, which is the largest development budget in history. Rs171.7 billion has been allocated for foreign-funded projects, while the volume of ongoing expenditure has been set at Rs2,026.7 billion, which is 5.9 percent more than last year.

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Service delivery spending has been reduced by 5.8% to Rs679.8 billion. Rs934.2 billion will be transferred to local governments, which will help strengthen governance at the local level.

The education sector has been given special importance in the budget, for which Rs811.8 billion has been allocated, an increase of 21.2 percent, while the health budget has been increased by 17 percent to Rs630.5 billion. Agriculture has also been allocated Rs129.5 billion, an increase of 10.7 percent, so that relief can be provided to farmers.

The FBR target for the next fiscal year has been set at Rs14,131 billion, while Punjab s share will be Rs4,062.2 billion. Punjab s own revenue target has been set at Rs828.1 billion, of which Rs524.7 billion will be collected from tax collections and Rs303.4 billion from non-tax revenues.

The Punjab Revenue Authority has been set a target of Rs340 billion, which is 13 percent more than last year. The target for Urban Movable Property Tax has been set at Rs32.5 billion, while the revenue target for the Board of Revenue has been set at Rs105 billion. The estimated budget surplus has been set at Rs740 billion, and Rs72.3 billion has been allocated for targeted subsidies.