KPK records the highest decrease in income inequality under the PTI government

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is already the fastest-growing economy, is now outperforming other provinces in ending inequality. KPK’s finance and health minister, Taimur Khan Jhagra, on Friday announced that KPK had left all provinces behind in terms of ending inequality and has recorded the biggest improvements in this regard. Jhagra quoted a UNDP report highlighting figures from a period spanning from 2006-2019, covering some 8 years of KPK’s governance under PTI. However, the minister didn’t quote an exact source of the figures and the report from which the figures originate.

KPK also reported a tax collection of Rs. 17.158 billion in the 2019-20 financial year, an increase over Rs. 10.354 billion from the previous year despite the coronavirus pandemic. The 66% rise in taxes collected was credited to a ‘tax acculturation’ policy where businesses and citizens were encouraged to pay income taxes.

Some of the other major initiatives by the KPK government to improve the province’s conditions include the digital skills training program, which resulted in 4,000 graduates getting employed, and the Sehat Insaf Card, with which more than 100,000 patients availed themselves free medical treatment with KPK’s Sehat Card. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is also the first province in Pakistan to provide free health coverage to all of its residents under the Sehat Sahulat Programme.