Money matters: New K-P government to present full budget

A full budget is expected as opposed to earlier speculations of interim arrangements.

PESHAWAR:

With the government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) all set to assume power in the next few days, a complete budget for the next fiscal year is expected as opposed to earlier indications of an interim arrangement.

It was unclear till mid-April if the new government would be formed in time to announce the budget for fiscal year (FY) 2013-2014 and the province’s bureaucracy was working out a plan for the interim budget for the first quarter of the fiscal year, an official at the Civil Secretariat said while requesting anonymity.

“As the new government is able to assume power before the new fiscal year starts, the province would now have a full budget,” he added.

Under Article 126 of the Constitution, if a government is not in power at the time of the budget’s presentation, the caretaker presents it for the first quarter of the relevant fiscal year, and upon formation of the elected government it then proceeds to present the budget for the rest of the eight months, said an official of the finance department.



As the assembly session has been called on May 29 wherein the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government will assume power in the province, the K-P budget is expected to be presented in the third week of June, added the official. “It would be a completely bureaucratic budget,” he said, maintaining the budget would have to be approved by the provincial assembly before June 30.

However, he said the emerging scenario in K-P regarding the formation of the government allows little room for input from it in the process.

The official further said over 400 ongoing development schemes leftover from the previous fiscal year, 2012-2013, would be a major part of the new budget apart from the possibility of adding around 200 new schemes.

Around 52 foreign funded development schemes had to be left for the new budget because of lack of foreign aid, he added. “Lack of coordination among officials and untrained staff is also the reason behind the failure to secure the required foreign aid for completion of developmental schemes,” he said.

In a news conference on May 11, caretaker information minister Mussarat Qadeem had said the caretaker government was ready to hand over power to the elected representatives. However, it was also prepared to present the budget in June if there was a delay in the formation of the government, she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2013