Budget talk: 43 demands for grants worth Rs1,210.214 billion passed

Five cut motions rejected.

LAHORE:

Load shedding is not only Punjab’s problem, it is rampant in every province, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said at the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday.

The Punjab government has allocated Rs20 billion for the energy sector. He said he hoped his team would manage to solve the energy crisis soon.

He said the gas tariff for industries would be increased. They would be higher than the rates for domestic use, he said. Alternate sources of energy would be used and the government would provide solar powered tube wells at subsidised rates.

Solar panels would be installed in hospitals, schools and other important buildings so they would not experience load shedding, he said. The government will start a public-private partnership with businessmen and investors to develop the energy sector. “A delegation from Turkey has arrived in the province to work on alternative sources of energy,” he said.

He said the media back in 1997 was not independent and only PTV had reported on the elections, but several TV channels and newspapers had covered the recent elections.



The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party had been the only major parties contesting the 1997 elections, but voters had many parties to choose from this time, he said.

He said the PML-N had won 84 per cent seats of the seats in the province due to its performance in the previous tenure. He said the 2013 elections had been held without the establishment’s intervention.

Opposition Leader Mian Mehmoodul Rashid smiled at that statement. Sharif said that Rashid and he had been part of the treasury in 1988 and he knew how the establishment intervened in the elections. He said the people had voted PML-N because they believed that only PML-N could end load shedding.

The assembly passed demands for grants worth Rs1,210.214 billion and has technically passed the Annual Budget Statement for 2013-2014.

Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan chaired the session. The treasury benches rejected three cut motions raised by the opposition. The opposition had placed five cut motions allocated for demands for grants in the last two days, but the treasury managed to pass 43 demands for grants with majority.

The five cut motions included Police, Education, Health, Services, Miscellaneous Departments and Land Revenue. Of the total amount for grants, Rs607.569 billion has been allocated for current expenditure, Rs290 billion for development funds, Rs10.5 billion for capital and Rs302 billion mixed. Rs148 billion has been set aside for Food, Rs112 billion in loans for Food, Rs32 billion for foreign loans and Rs8 billion as loans for pension.

The assembly will pass the Punjab Finance Bill 2013-2014 on Thursday (today).  Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif appreciated the efforts of his team and cabinet in passing the budget.

He assured the opposition that their suggestions would be considered.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2013.