CM seeks to pass the buck at Centre

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah levelled blame at the federal government on Thursday for the slow pace of development projects in Sindh. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has failed to meet its revenue targets since its tenure began over two and a half years ago and consequently, the provinces have to suffer, said Shah.

Responding to a question as he spoke to the media after visiting the Teachers Training Institute in Hussainabad, the CM said that under the Constitution of Pakistan, the provinces have tasked the federal government with tax collection. The Centre is then supposed to distribute 57.7 per cent of its total cess collection to the federating units in accordance with the National Finance Commission's distribution formula, he added. "But, the present [PTI] government, ever since it has come to power, has failed to achieve its revenue targets, therefore it has transferred Rs80 billion short than the agreed amount to the Sindh government during the last eight months."

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Shah, who was flanked by Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani, said that the alleged Rs80b shortfal had affected the provincial budget and its development commitments.

'Hand over sales cess collection'

Shah said that he has been requesting the federal government to hand over collection of the sales tax to the provinces and to give them a collection target. "The provinces are closer to the consumers and they can collect more effusively and efficiently than the Federal Board of Revenue," claimed Shah, adding that his requests had been to no avail.

The CM claimed the Sindh Revenue Board was capable of collecting sales tax on behalf of the federal government if it was permitted to do so.

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According to him, before the creation of the SRB roughly eight years ago, Sindh received less than Rs15b from the federal government. "This year, the SRB is going to achieve its collection target of Rs130b," he said.

Shah further claimed that the Pakistan Peoples Party-led federal government had carried out mega development activities in the city from 2016 to 2018 but in the past two and a half years his government in Sindh was faced with financial constraints and could not continue uplift works at the same pace.

However, he added, despite the shortage of resources his government had undertaken some important development activities in the city. The federal funding for the cleaning storm water drains has not trickled down to the extent it was committed, he said.

Replying to another question, the CM said there was no immediate plan to reshuffle the provincial cabinet.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2021.