KP current expenditure surges by over Rs1,000bn in seven yea

Bureaucracy's salaries, perks and pensions eat into development budget Peshawar:In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an extraordinary increase of more than Rs1,000 billion in the budget for current expenditures has been recorded over the past seven years, while the increase in the development budget during the same period remained extremely limited in comparison. According to documents available with the Finance Department, the budget for current expenditures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stood at Rs537.737 billion in fiscal year 2020-21. After continuous increases, it has risen to Rs1,645 billion in the current fiscal year 2026-27. The documents show that in fiscal year 2021-22, current expenditures increased by Rs22.205 billion, taking the budget to Rs559.942 billion. In 2022-23, current expenditures increased by another Rs80.893 billion, reaching Rs640.835 billion. In fiscal year 2023-24, current expenditures witnessed a significant increase of Rs215.161 billion in a single year, taking the budget to Rs855.996 billion. In 2024-25, a further increase of Rs266.162 billion pushed current expenditures to Rs1,122.158 billion. The available text regarding the development budget states that it stood at Rs164.396 billion and, after five years, increased by only Rs31.81 billion in 2024-25, reaching Rs196.206 billion. However, the total development budget for fiscal year 2025-26 was shown as Rs608 billion. According to the documents, over the past five years, the budget for current expenditures in the settled districts increased by Rs584.421 billion, while the development budget increased by only Rs30.151 billion. Similarly, current expenditures in the tribal districts increased by Rs47.946 billion, whereas the increase in their development budget was only Rs1.659 billion. On the other hand, it has also been revealed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa received less than its due share from the federal government under the 7th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award and the war-on-terror head. According to the documents, over the past five years, the province was supposed to receive Rs3,256.346 billion under the NFC Award. However, it received Rs3,114.45 billion, reflecting a shortfall of Rs114.896 billion. Similarly, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was supposed to receive Rs391.303 billion under the war-on-terror head. However, after a shortfall of Rs17.079 billion, the province received Rs374.224 billion. Overall, the federal government provided Rs158.97 billion less to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the two heads. The figures show that while the province's current expenditures—particularly salaries and allowances—have continued to rise, the pace of increase in the development budget has remained far lower. This has raised questions about the province's financial priorities and the rapidly expanding size of its recurrent expenditures.