Budget 2012: Most legislators fail to show up for AJK budget

Session starts three hours late as the house struggles to reach quorum; Rs44.5 billion budget unveiled.

MUZAFFARABAD:

In a sparsely-attended session of the region’s Legislative Assembly, Azad Jammu Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rasheed Abbasi presented a Rs44.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2012, which is 18.7% higher than the budget for the outgoing fiscal year.

The budget session started three hours late, with the legislature struggling to secure a quorum. Most legislators are reportedly busy with the election campaigns and were unable to attend the budget session. It is unclear how many will be able to turn up for the vote on the finance bill itself, which is expected over the next few weeks and coincides with the most hectic part of the election cycle.

Unlike the federal finance minister’s speech on June 3, which outlined a broader direction of economic reform, Abbasi’s speech appeared to be a litany of figures, where he simply read out what the AJK government has spent thus far in the outgoing year, what it plans to spend the next year and where the money will be coming from.

Of the total spending outlined by the minister, Rs8.3 billion will be spent on development, an amount that is financed entirely through grants from the federal government. The development budget for the upcoming year is 34% higher than the budget for the outgoing fiscal year.

Abbasi claimed that the AJK government was presenting a ‘balanced budget’ but then later in his speech pointed to transfers from the federal government as the reason why the regional government’s revenues were equal to its expenditures.

The region is very heavily dependent upon such transfers for financing most of its government and development expenses. In addition to regular transfers, the federal government frequently fills in any additional gaps in the AJK budget.

The AJK government will spend Rs11 billion on education and Rs2.6 billion on health. Muzaffarabad will spend more on pensions for its retired employees (Rs2.3 billion) than on its existing employees (Rs1.4 billion). It also spends close to Rs5 billion on electricity provision and infrastructure.

The region is also expected to spend Rs3.6 billion on public safety and law enforcement. Of that amount, Rs2.8 billion will be spent on the police force.

Within the development budget, the single largest allocation will be to transportation infrastructure (Rs3.3 billion), whereas another Rs1.1 billion has been allocated towards hydroelectric power generation projects.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2011.