Sindh presents Rs1.14tr budget

CM Murad requests house to authorise expenditure for only 3 months


Hafeez Tunio May 11, 2018
PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Amid the opposition’s walk-out, the Sindh government presented a deficit and tax-free budget at the end of its tenure with no new development schemes marked for the next financial year (2018-19).

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah who also holds the portfolio of finance, presented Rs1.144 trillion budget against an outlay of Rs1.04 trillion for the outgoing fiscal year (2017-18), reflecting an increase of 8.8 per cent for the next financial year.

He requested the house to authorise expenditure for just three months, between July 1 and September 30 this year.

Sindh’s total development budget outlay for 2018-19 will be Rs.343.9 billion. Of which Rs.282 billion will be funded from the provincial budget, Rs46.894 billion from Foreign Projects Assistance (FPA) and Rs15.02 billion will be provided by the federal government for the province’s PSDP schemes.

The Sindh government decided to set aside 80 per cent funds for ongoing development schemes while leaving 20 per cent of budget space for new schemes in a block provision in ADP 2018-19.

Next fiscal year’s (2018- 19) budget “is a tax-free, welfare-oriented and a progressive budget”, the chief minister said.

“I will not be introducing a Finance Bill for (the entire fiscal year) 2018-19. New schemes of all departments will be accommodated under the block provision of Rs50 billion by the next government,” he said.

The budget deficit is estimated to be Rs20.4 billion.

Shah said that almost 75 per cent of Sindh government’s revenue receipts were dependent on federal transfers, such as its share from the federal divisible pool, straight transfers and grants to offset losses in lieu of abolition of OZT.

“The major chunk comes from divisible pool taxes, which is distributed to provinces under NFC formula,” he said.

He said that the decision on the 9th NFC Award was long overdue.

Stressing the need to finalise the NFC Award soon, he said: “The delay is causing huge economic losses to (smaller) provinces, especially Sindh, because its revenue collection is much higher against other provinces.”

The province’s total receipts for financial year 2017-18 were estimated at Rs1,028.9 billion while the estimated expenditure was estimated at Rs1,043.2 billion.

“For the next financial year (2018-19), the budget estimate for receipts is Rs1,124 billion, as much as 8.5 per cent higher than the current financial year,” the CM said.

“Receipts from the federal government under the head of revenue assignment, straight transfers and grants are estimated to be Rs665.1 billion. Receipts from the federal government are 59.2 per cent of the province’s total receipts,” he said.

Receipts under federal PSDP were estimated to be Rs15 billion.

“We have estimated Rs46 billion (under various heads such as) foreign project assistance, budgetary support loans and grants while receipts from province’s own resources, including tax and non-tax receipts are estimated to be Rs243 billion,” he said.

Salaries and pension

The government moved to raise basic salaries and pensions of government employees by as much as 10 per cent.

The house rent ceiling and house rent allowance were enhanced by 50 per cent. Minimum pensions were enhanced from Rs6,000 to Rs10,000 and minimum family pensions from Rs4,500 to Rs7,500.

Shah said that pensioners aged 75 years or older would be paid at least Rs15,000.

Over time, allowances admissible to staff, such as car drivers and dispatch riders, was enhanced from Rs40 per hour to Rs80 per hour, amounting to a maximum of Rs480 on working days and Rs100 per hour on closed holidays amounting to a maximum of Rs600 per day.

He said that the government would regularise contract employees, including 24,000 Lady Health Workers and 1,300 NPIW workers.

Maintenance of law and order remained the provincial government’s highest priority: as much as Rs100.48 billion were set aside for the home department for the next financial year against the current budget estimate of Rs90.5 billion. The allocation included Sindh police’s budget of Rs89.94 billion (which increased by 11 per cent). It also included an allocation for the sanctioned number of employee (SNE) for police amounting to Rs5.3 billion.

As many as 6,061 new vacancies were created to strengthen law enforcement agencies with a financial impact of Rs3.3 billion.

At least Rs2.4 billion was set aside for procuring modern equipment and high-tech armoured vehicles for combatting terrorism and maintaining law and order.

The provincial government also announced to enhance the rates of compensation to families of martyred Sindh Police officers and officials, raising it from Rs5 million to Rs10 million per head along with a plot and an appointment for one heir in every victim’s family.

In the health sector, the Sindh government slashed Rs3 billion on the development side of the health budget for next financial year at Rs12.5 billion against an allocation of Rs15.5 billion for the ongoing fiscal year.

The chief minister said that the next government would add more schemes in the health sector from the block allocation.

In the education sector, the government allocated Rs24.4 billion for various development schemes for the next fiscal year against Rs21 billion for the current year.

A break up showed that Rs5 billion was allocated for college education, Rs15 billion for schools, Rs3.2 billion for boards and universities, Rs958.5 million for STEVTA and Rs200 million for special education.

As much as Rs3 billion was allocated in the provincial ADP for the education department’s foreign-funded projects.

The funds are earmarked for ongoing schemes and there are no new projects given the proximity of the upcoming elections. Most schemes in the budget are around five or 10 years old.

In the next financial year, the Sindh government allocated Rs6.83 billion for Transport and Mass Transit Department in the Annual Development Programme (ADP). However, there was no separate budgetary allocation for procuring busses for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

According to budget books, scholarships would be provided as an incentive to students for their efforts in securing higher grades, regardless of the family’s income. The scholarship’s amount was fixed at Rs100,000 per student for all educational boards across Sindh.

Agriculture sector’s current revenue expenditure was increased by 34 per cent to Rs10.36 billion in the next financial year against Rs7.7 billion in the current fiscal year.

Local government’s funds were enhanced in the next fiscal year, increasing it from Rs7.8 billion to Rs9.13 billion (amounting to an increase of 16.5 per cent over last year’s budget).

To combat malnutrition, Sindh government allocated Rs5.1 billion in the next year’s budget. The government also increased grants for minorities, from Rs500 million in the current year to Rs750 million for the next financial year.

Regarding energy, the CM said that the province was injecting 935 megawatts of electricity into the national grid through wind resources.

An additional 300MW of power would be available by July this year produced by six more wind power projects.

The Sindh government, he said, also planned to generate 2,485MW from wind and 1,550MW via solar energy through foreign funding.

According to him, the provincial government recently finalised the World Bank-funded ‘Sindh Solar Energy Project’ for deployment of solar PV technologies at a cost of $105 million.

The project, which would be formally launched in the next financial year, comprises urban rooftop solar programme for Karachi and Hyderabad; village electrification for off-grid areas with an initial target of 200,000 households across Sindh; 50MW grid-connected solar project at Manjhand in Jamshoro district and in-house capacity building.

COMMENTS (1)

AK | 5 years ago | Reply So Dubai and London will become richer and Sind poorer. Most of these funds would be siphoned off from the people and sent overseas. This is a Budget presented by incompetent, corrupt and dishonest politicians.
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