CM Murad asks Centre for audit of Rs9,000b collected in taxes

Censures PTI govt for inflation, unemployment; discusses Sindh budget at public meeting

KARACHI:

Lambasting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led  federal  government,  Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah demanded on Sunday an audit  of  Rs9,000  billion  collected  in taxes from Karachi in the past three years.

Addressing   an   open   kutchery  [public  meeting]  in  Meerut  Housing  Society,  Ahsanabad,  on  Sunday, the CM said some federal ministers  and  representatives  of  the PTI government were "shamelessly"  asking  for  an  account  of  Rs18b  they  gave  the  province  in  the  past  three  years.  The  Centre  has  collected  Rs9,000  billion  in  taxes  from  Karachi  in  the  past  three years of the PTI-led govern-ment, but except short payments of Rs370b from Sindh's share, the Centre  has  given  nothing  to  the  province  in  return,  said  Shah.  Instead,  it  has  rendered  25,000  people - including 1,650 employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills - jobless, has unleashed a storm of inflation, created  a  sugar  and  wheat  crisis  and caused overall unrest among the people, claimed the CM.

Shah  said  he  categorically  told  those asking for accounts of Rs18b that  he  was  not  answerable  to  them.  "I  am  answerable  to  the  people  of  the  province,  who  al-ways repose their confidence in the Pakistan Peoples Party by giving it the mandate to rule in consecutive terms.

"The CM claimed that the 'selected' federal government had no ability or  will  to  rule  in  the  interest  of  the  people.  They  have  destroyed  the economy, promoted nepotism and  corruption  and  torn  apart  the  ethics  of  the  political  culture,  he  alleged.  "We  [on  the  other  hand]  are not showing our performance through  press  conferences,  tall  claims,  and  pack  of  lies  but  our  performance  is  evident  from  the  results  of  the  elections  we  have  been  winning  one  after  another  with more and more majority and set a record of winning all the by elections," claimed.

According to a statement issued by the CM's office, most complaints from  citizens  at  the  public  meet-ing were against prolonged power outages, high handedness by the police, water and sewerage issues and encroachments. The CM was requested to regularise villages.Of collection & expenditureEarlier, criticising the Centre for its alleged failure to show appropriate growth  in  the  national  economy  and missing tax collection targets, Shah said that the Sindh govern-ment collected Rs128.52b in taxes during  the  fiscal  year  2020-21,  an  increase  of  28  per  cent  from  the  collection in fiscal year 2019-20. The target for the current fiscal year has been set at Rs154.49b, he added.

Shah  said  the  current  revenue  expenditure  for  the  current  year  is estimated to grow by 12 per cent to  Rs.1,089.37b.  "The  increase  is  mainly  because  salary  and  pen-sion bill is rising by 13 per cent  and 10 per cent respectively, grants to local bodies have been increased by five percent to Rs82b, the police de-partment's budget has been raised by five per cent  to Rs106.91b, the health budget increased by 30 per cent  to  Rs181.22b,  the  education  budget was raised by 13.2 per cent to Rs268.41b and Rs30.9b has been allocated for pro-poor social protec-tion  and  economic  sustainability  initiatives.

The CM added that if the federal government  or  any  other  agency  wished to come to Sindh to under-take development works, they were welcome to.In the provincial budget, he said, funds allocated for the women de-velopment  department  (WDD)  were increased by 64.09 per cent to Rs571.98m and another Rs64m was set  aside  for  low-income  women  and children in Sindh. The Darul Amaans  in  Karachi,  Hyderabad,  Sukkur,  Larkana  and  Shaheed  Benazirabad were handed over to the WDD, he added.

Projects in the works

Elaborating on schemes under the education department, Shah said government  schools  were  being  constructed  at  the  cost  of  Rs5b,  free  textbooks  distribution  was  estimated at Rs.2.3b, a non-formal education centre was being operationalised for Rs600m to reduce the rate of `out of reach' school children and furniture was being provided to schools at the cost of Rs6.62b.With   regards   to   transport   schemes, the CM said that Rs7.64b have  been  allocated  to  develop  a  mass  transit  system.  He  mentioned that 250 hybrid electric buses were being procured at the cost of Rs6.48b and the Bus Rapid Transit Red  Line  and  Blue  Line  projects  would be launched in the next few months  at  the  cost  of  Rs35b  and  Rs28b, respectively.

Moving onto development projects for the metropolis, Shah said that 132 schemes were completed under the Karachi Package at the cost of Rs43, 068.78m.  Of  these,  89 schemes were executed by the Sindh  local  government  department, 33 by the mega project team and 10 by the Karachi Development Authority. Besides, 113 schemes estimated at Rs18,000.03m were in progress, said Shah.