Allocations for 2013-14: Supreme Court, IHC, NAB face spending cuts

Budget Priorities Committee says savings expected due to vacant posts in the said institutions.

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government has proposed budget cuts for the Supreme Court (SC), Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for the next fiscal year.

The Budget Priorities Committee has proposed spending cuts of Rs104 million, Rs33.4 million and Rs80 million for the SC, IHC and the NAB respectively for the financial year 2013-14.

The proposal is based on savings expected due to vacant posts in the said institutions.

The Committee on Thursday finalised the allocations for the three institutions during the fourth day of its proceedings.

The Registrar Supreme Court of Pakistan did not turn up for the meeting, but the allocation for the apex court were finalised for the financial year 2013-14 commencing from July.

The federal government has proposed a budget of Rs934.6 million for the apex court for next fiscal year, which is Rs104 million less than this year’s allocation.

On the question of Registrar not coming to meet with the Committee, the spokesman for the finance ministry Rana Assad Amin said usually those departments that are content with their proposed allocations do not come for attending Committee meetings.

Amin said IHC registrar came to attend the meeting and demanded additional funds.

IHC’s budget has been proposed at Rs321.5 million as against Rs355.1 million for the current fiscal year. The Committee did not accept the Registrar’s request for additional funds.

On its fourth day of proceedings, the Committee had called the Principal Accounting Officers (PAOs) of Federal Tax Ombudsman, ministries of law, justice & parliamentary affairs, human rights, SC, IHC, NAB, National Assembly, Senate, and Election Commission of Pakistan.

In case of SC and IHC, the registrars are the PAOs.

The committee, comprising federal secretaries of Finance, Economic Affairs and Planning Commission, is in process of finalising proposed current and development budgets for all the federal government funded institutions and departments.

The proposed ceilings for the next fiscal have been finalised after reviewing spending patterns by government departments during the first seven months of the current fiscal year.

The Priorities Committee has also proposed Rs2.1 billion budget for National Assembly, higher by Rs64 million or 3.1% over this year’s allocation. For Senate Rs1.4 billion have been proposed, which is Rs133 million or 11% higher than this year’s allocation. One apparent reason for almost no increase in NA budget is that the nation is going to select a new Assembly on May 11.

The NAB’s budget has been proposed at Rs1.68 billion, which is Rs80 million less than this year’s allocation. In real terms the decrease is larger than Rs80 million as the inflation rate for the next fiscal year has been anticipated at 9%.

The Priorities Committee has suggested Rs1.85 billion for Election Commission of Pakistan – higher by Rs272 million or 17.2%. The committee has proposed allocating Rs2.68 billion for ministry of law and justice, Rs1.1 billion for ministry of parliamentary affairs and Rs105.6 million for the Federal Tax Ombudsman.


Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2013.