Gaps in budget-making

Our bureaucrats need to to change their ways, if we want to make the budget-making process representative in character

The budget-making process in Pakistan has long been in the hands of bureaucrats with politicians principally playing the ceremonious role of giving the document their seal of approval in parliament. Minimal time is spent on the debate preceding the budget’s passage, with our parliamentarians’ lack of expertise partly explaining the unseemly haste.

The standing committees of the National Assembly and the Senate are forums where detailed scrutiny of tax and spending proposals can be made in the run-up to the next budget. For these panels to play an effective role, our finance ministry mandarins should share critical budget-related information with them well in advance. But a government adviser revealed the other day, saying that the indicative size of the next financial year’s budget has not been notified to the parliamentary committees. This is a disturbing state of affairs. It indicates that the ministry’s babus are not yet willing to give the parliamentary panels the right to have a critical look on budgetary proposals. This is in spite of the fact that the National Assembly had amended its rules of procedure last year to empower standing committees to scrutinise the budget before presenting in the House.

This, essentially, means the committees cannot carry out their assigned functions. This, in turn, undermines their role in keeping a watchful eye on how the nation’s resource cake is cut and distributed. The developed nations have an efficient way of crafting their budgets, starting way before the actual tabling of the document in their parliaments. This involves consultations at various levels to seek necessary input from diverse stakeholders. The exercise, in most cases, is well staggered, giving ample time for fine-tuning of the proposals. Our case seems just the opposite. If we want to make the budget-making process all-inclusive and representative in character, we should learn a lesson or two from the developed countries. For this to happen, our bureaucrats will have to change their ways to start with.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2014.

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