Left-over projects to be devolved by end-June

Some women’s projects ended due to duplication.

KARACHI:

The projects and other resources of the federal government departments which have yet to be devolved to Sindh will be wrapped up by the end of June, said Sindh Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah at a post-budget briefing on Saturday.

He clarified that there was no more confusion over the collection of GST on services. “We have passed the bill and set up the Sindh Revenue Board to collect the tax on services, including the tax on telecommunications,” Shah said, adding that there was confusion over who would collect the tax from the banking sector, insurance companies, ports and shipping, customs and stockbrokers. “Until and unless the issue is resolved, the federal government will collect it and 50% of it will be returned to Sindh. The rest will be put in the divisible pool, which will later be distributed on multiple criteria.”

He explained that women support programmes were closed because other similar programmes had come up. For the most part, he reiterated the large chunks of spending and allocations that have been lined up. Adviser to the CM on planning and development, Dr Kaisar Bengali, said that after 30 years, the budget’s direction has been changed and emphasis was given on development and curtailing non-development spending.

Along with the Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas highways, the government wants to build a network of 6,600 roads in the next seven years for which one billion rupees was needed.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2011.