Subsidy hungry: Opposition flays BRT as fiscal burden

K-P, federal finance minister criticised for failing to present budget with a vision

PESHAWAR: With the provincial government channelling a chunk of the meagre development budget for ongoing projects, one such ongoing project — the controversial Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project — was flayed by the opposition in the provincial assembly as a burden on the province.

The criticism came on the second day of debate on the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2018-19 in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker from Dera Ismail Khan Ahmad Kundi lashed out at the distribution of development funds in the provincial budget presented by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led K-P government.

“We were happy that we have ministers in both the federal and K-P cabinets for finance who have a background of financial management and we were expecting a change, a vision and direction for eliminating our financial woes,” stated Kundi in what was his maiden speech in the assembly.

“But they [finance ministers] introduced a new terminology of ‘Chanda Economics’ which cannot be found in the dictionary of economics,” said Kundi, who is an agriculturist by trade and a civil engineer by education.

“Chanda (donations) is not bad in itself but countries cannot be run through ‘Chanda’,” he stated.

Regarding the BRT Peshawar project, Kundi said the project has become a burden on the province’s resources and that even if the government goes on to operate it, they will be forced to provide a subsidy for it like the projects in Lahore, Multan and Islamabad-Rawalpindi along with its rapidly increasing cost.

“I would call it the ‘Burden Rapid Transit’ project rather than BRT because of its high cost,” he said.

The PPP lawmaker added that on one hand, the government had been crying hoarse about a financial crisis while on the other it was throwing billions of rupees on projects such as the BRT which would not offer any financial returns but would require subsidies for operations.

“Our government has no vision and direction which is a bigger issue than the financial crisis,” Kundi said as K-P Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ghani stopped him short owing to shortage of time on Friday.

Awami National Party’s (ANP) parliamentary leader in the house Sardar Hussain Babak took a swipe at the incumbent government’s fabled accountability process and asked the K-P Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra to tell the house when their government would start the accountability process of some holy cows.

“The finance minister talked about accountability of political parties. Will the finance minister tell the house when will the accountability of judges and generals be held?” Babak asked, adding that politicians have been held accountable for the past 45 years.

“People voted for the PTI so that they can hold the judges and generals accountable,” he said.

He also criticised the arrest of Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), adding that manner of his arrest was shameful.

Regarding the provincial budget, he echoed Kundi’s sentiments that it lacks planning for development activities, especially in the erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (Fata) which are now a part of K-P.

“The federal government has announced the Rs100 billion development package for Fata but there is nothing about Fata in the [provincial] budget. How will they spend that money when you still do not have any plan for it,” he asked.

He also asked the provincial finance minister to explain the status of projects worth Rs2.4 trillion listed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in last year’s budget. Babak jogged Jhagra’s memory by pointing out that the provincial government had been celebrating the projects and claiming that they had signed several agreements for developmental projects which will be sponsored under CPEC but were now nowhere to be seen in this year’s budget.

Babak also criticised the Rs3 billion project to build 10 new colleges in the province while allocating a mere Rs0.1 million for it in the current fiscal year.

“Is that not a joke and a mockery of education?” he asked.

The ANP leader also took aim at PTI’s budget preparation and execution skills noting that despite being provided with a fiscal platform built by the efforts of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the ANP, the PPP and the PML-N to create fiscal space, the PTI failed to achieve revenue targets.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2018.