Undeterred by opposition, Sindh Assembly passes Rs851b budget

CM asks citizens not to pay heed to ‘false propaganda’ about missing children

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly passed on Sunday a Rs851 billion budget for the remaining nine months of the current fiscal year, rejecting all 113 cut motions of the opposition to reduce non-development expenditures.

Before the general elections, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of finance minister, had presented a Rs1.144 trillion budget in May, 2018, requesting the House to authorise expenditures for just three months between July 1 to September 30, this year.

The budget for the remainder of the fiscal year was passed, in spite of serious reservations expressed by opposition members, on Sunday.



In the development sector, the Sindh government has axed the provincial budget by Rs24 billion, citing financial constraints in view of the shortfall in federal transfers. According to the budget document, a total of Rs282b were earlier allocated for the provincial annual development program - this figure now stands at Rs258b.

Winding up his speech during the last day of the budget session, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the provincial government was facing a shortfall of Rs59 billion in federal transfers.

"The first three months of the current financial year have come to an end and the Sindh government was supposed to receive Rs166b," he told the assembly, adding that they had only received Rs107b. "This is why we slashed our development portfolio," he said.

The CM said that some old schemes from the year 2003 were still in the budget books. "We have made a new policy under which 80% of the funds have been allocated for ongoing schemes," he said, adding that this year, the Sindh government planned to complete 956 ongoing schemes, besides the 700 schemes completed last year.

According to Shah, 26 new schemes have been included in the ADP, of which some would be undertaken with financial assistance from donor agencies.

The chief minister said that village gasification, a medical college and a coastal highway have been included in the new ADP. "We want to save the Indus Delta and stop sea intrusion by constructing the 87-km Sindh Coastal Highway," he said.

Urban water and drainage

The chief minister said that water supply and drainage schemes have been launched in urban areas of Sindh, which include Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Hyderabad.

In response to a point raised by Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi, the chief minister said that lining of canals was important to stop seepage and loss of irrigation water. He added that the canal lining funds were used in six weeks because the work is carried out during the six-week period when the canals are closed. He urged Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Ghulam Qadir Chandio to take all the lawmakers to Nawabshah and show them the Rohri Canal Lining.

At-source deductions

CM Shah said that in 2016, the Federal Board of Revenue extracted Rs6.7b from the provincial government's accounts, saying 1.4 million vehicles were registered by the Excise and Taxation Department. He added that the matter was taken up with the State Bank of Pakistan which had stopped the at-source deduction. "Now, they are reluctant to reconcile the account," he said. The episode repeated itself in May last year, when the FBR, in order to meet its target, made a direct deduction from the local government's accounts in the National Bank of Pakistan. "I got an FIR registered against the bank for unauthorised deductions," he said.

Health

The chief minister said that his government had given special focus to improving primary healthcare. "We have reduced child, mother mortality rates, stunting has come down to nine percent during the last five years - this is a success story," he said.

Home department

With regard to the law and order situation, the chief minister said that in 2008, it was at its worst across the province. "Our police, Rangers and military have rendered a lot of sacrifices for the restoration of peace in the city," he said, adding that in 2013, Karachi was the sixth most dangerous city in the world.

Missing children

On the matter of missing children, the CM said that an issue has been created. There were only eight children who were kidnapped in the city and all of them were recovered, he said, adding that "We have 146 missing children's cases this year". In Punjab, there were 564 cases of missing children by August. We are giving special attention to child protection and urged people of the city not to pay heed to false propaganda.

SPSC

CM Shah said that the Sindh Public Service Commission recruited 6,700 persons, of whom 5,000 were doctors, while 4,000 more doctors would be inducted soon.

Thar

The government has given 14 ambulances to Tharparkar. Now, Thar even has a better road network, but it is still a huge desert area and more ambulances are needed.

The CM said that former prime minister Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, during her tenure in 1994-95, had started work on Thar Coal. Had the Gordon Woo Thar coal and power project been allowed to complete, Pakistan would have not plunged into darkness these days. In Thar Coal Block-II, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company has excavated a 3.8 ton mine to provide fuel [coal] to a 303MW power plant which is also at its completion stage.

Illegal promotions

The chief minister said that the illegal promotions made in the past have been reversed. He pointed out that most of these promotions were made in Karachi and Hyderabad's local bodies by those who had crowned themselves kings under the devolution system. "This was all was done in the civic centre and the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation," he said.

Ambulance service

The chief minister said that he was launching a 1122 ambulance service in the city. In the first phase, 66 ambulances of the Aman Foundation were being inducted to the fleet and in the next financial year, the number would be increased to 200.

Responding to the opposition leader's speech, the CM termed his speech irrelevant. He said that Naqvi's speech sounded like he was talking about the federal budget. "He [Naqvi] spoke about the census which is not our subject. He talked about BISP, which is also a federal subject," he said.

Buffalos - a NAB case

The chief minister said that the PM House has sold eight buffalos for Rs.2.3 million. A buffalo gives seven to 14 kgs of milk twice a day. This means each buffalo gives 20kg a day for 365 days of the year. The price of milk price is Rs94/kg. In one year, the amount comes to Rs2.2 million if 50 percent expenditures of their fodder are deducted.

"In other words, a buffalo can generate Rs2.2 million per year and you have sold eight buffalos for Rs2.3 million," said the CM, urging the prime minister to change the NAB law, before the bureau launched an investigation over the sale of the buffalos against him.

Agriculture income tax

Agriculture income tax has been imposed in Sindh and "we are giving this tax but there might be some tax evasions which is common everywhere," said the CM, adding that he, himself, had paid over Rs2,547,000 in taxes last year. "This is a wrong impression that we are not giving this tax," he said.

K-IV

With regard to the K-IV project, Murad Ali Shah said that the scheme was conceived in 2006-7. "We had held a number of meetings on the project, but the project was ill-conceived and the land acquisition component was not included," he recalled. "When the project was started, Rs5 billion were sought for land acquisition, which the federal government refused to pay," he added.

The chief minister said that the FWO has been given the contract of K-IV and had been told that there would be no price escalation or extension in the deadline.

About his helicopters, CM Shah said the Sindh government owned two helicopters, both of which were purchased in 1992 when the PPP was not in government. "We have no papers for those helicopters and we can't sell them," he deplored.

He added said that the Sindh government also has a Jet plane which was purchased in 2006 - again not by the PPP government.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2018.