Punjab outperforms K-P

In an editorial last month, this paper had urged on a healthy competition between the provinces in the social sector. This competition can be monitored by looking at what the federal government calls pro-poor expenditures. The related dataset is regularly placed in the public domain on a quarterly basis. The last such exercise relates to nine months of the fiscal year 2015-16. Information is provided by the provinces themselves and the federal government, by adding its own contribution, just presents a consolidated picture. Its authenticity and reliability depends on the stage of the data collection. The data used here is at the provisional stage.

Both provinces have made large development allocations to education and health in their respective budgets for 2016-17. The actual performance will, in part, depend on the past record. A comparison between the trends in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Punjab in the first nine months of 2015-16 is extremely revealing.

Take the case of education first. K-P utilised Rs54,197 million compared to Rs67,743 in the comparable period of the previous year — a reduction of 20 per cent. The reduction occurred both in current and development expenditures, though it was more pronounced in the former. Generally, current expenditure is sticky and cannot be slashed unless staff layoffs, reduced facilities and even school closures are significant components of policy. In contrast, Punjab increased its development spending by 13 per cent and current spending by 14 per cent. Primary education in K-P was the worst hit, with a 31 per cent decline, despite some increase in the development component. There was also a decline of 20 per cent in the expenditure on secondary education, affecting both development and current expenditures. This cannot but have serious implications for reducing the large and expanding pool of out of school children and retaining those who have made it to schools. Punjab increased spending on primary education, but more on the current side. The emphasis seems to be on secondary education, which gets an increase of 25 per cent. In K-P, there was an increase of six per cent in the general universities and colleges compared to eight per cent in Punjab. K-P was spending far more than Punjab on professional and technical universities, colleges and iinstitutes. It was Rs5,232 million and Rs5,223 million compared to Punjab’s Rs2,387 million and Rs3,159 million.



In the health sector, K-P increased spending from Rs15,712 million to Rs16,656 million, or by only six per cent. The corresponding utilisation in Punjab rose by a massive 47 per cent. Development expenditure experienced a long jump of 248 per cent. The share of general hospitals and clinics in total health expenditure increased from 85 per cent to 86 per cent. In K-P, the share of tertiary health declined from 85 per cent to 81 per cent. In other words, primary health is gaining more significance in K-P. Water supply and sanitation, a key component of public health, witnessed an increase of 13 per cent in Punjab, with its development component increasing rapidly at 66 per cent. In K-P, total spending in this sector declined from Rs4,609 million to Rs1,624, or by as high as 65 per cent. Development expenditure was a paltry Rs10 million in the first nine months of 2015-16. Expenditure on population planning was up by 11 per cent in Punjab and down by 50 per cent in K-P.

On the whole, the expenditure on social sector rose by 22 per cent in Punjab and fell by 18 per cent in K-P during the period under report.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.