PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Thursday begandebate ontheprovincial budget for the year 2016-17 amid claims by the opposition that the government had planned to take more loans to show it a balanced budget.

Initiating general discussion on the budget which was presented on Tuesday, opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman rejected the government`s claim of presenting abalanced budget.

`Frankly, this budgetary document does not deserve discussion in the house,` he commented while criticising monetary policies of the PTI-led coalition government.

Speaker Asad Qaisar chaired the sitting.

The opposition leader claimed that the government failed to achieve its revenue targets during the outgoing financial year and therefore, it was facing a deficit of Rs65 billion and that the deficit would cross the one trillion figure in future.`Like me, finance minister Muzafar Said also does not understand the budget. He has just read out the document,` he said.

The opposition leader said he didn`t understand the mechanism how the government would make a balanced budget by securing loans.

He pointed out that the government was expecting Rs18 billion from the center in the head of net hydel profit for the outgoing fiscal year, but it might have received only Rs6 billion, showing Rs14 billion shortfall.

Maulana Lutfur Rehman said the net hydel profit was an old dispute between the center and the KP government and even the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government could not resolve that tricky issue.

He said the previous coalition government got some relief from the center due to good working relations between the center and the then government in the province, and the federal government released funds in this head.

Maulana Lutfur Rehman said currently, differences between the PTI led coalition government and the federal government had deepened and it also jeopardised release of net hydel profit and funds for other development projects in future.

The opposition leader, who belongs to the JUI-F, said the government claims to generate Rs12.7billion revenue through provincial capital receipts in the new financial year for utilising its properties for commercial activities was unrealistic.

He said revenue under this head was zero per cent in the outgoing fiscal year.

The opposition leader said the government had promised to create 40,000 jobs during new financial year while the ground reality was that 10,000 teachers were relieved.

He said the employees of provincial worl(ers welfare board had not been paid salaries for the last five months and they (employees) were on the roads in favour of their demands.

ANP member Syed Jafar Shah taking part in the discussion expressed serious reservations over annual development plan and observed that the government had presented budget for only few constituencies.

He said like previous budgets, the document was also based on `prediction` The lawmaker said some areas including remote areas of disaster hit Malakand Division had been ignored in the budget for the last three years.

`I can say that the government prepared budget for only five constituencies,` he said, adding that the government had neglected calamity hit areas. He said that reconstruction of a road in Kalamwhich was included in the previous ADP had been removed from the programme.

The lawmaker claimed that only 53 per cent of the current ADP had been utilised, while in the White Paper, it had been showed at 73 per cent, but the government spokesman claimed it 84 per cent.

Jafar Shah challenged austerity measures of the government and said Rs560 million budget had been increased for the administration department.

He said for the first time in the history, the government was obtaining Rs30 billion loan with mark-up to show it a balanced budget.

He informed that ADP had been slashed while budget for the higher education and other sectors had been decreased.

PPP lawmaker Saleem Khan said the champions of justice (PTI) had done injustice with the people of Chitral.

He said though a total of 22 bridges had been washed away in Chitral, but the provincial government had allocated only Rs15 million for them.

Later, the treasury members staged a token walkout from the house to protest against the Wapda for the frequent loadshedding in urban and ruralareas ofthe province.

PTI MPA Dr Haider Ali Khan led the walkout.