Sindh unveils Rs267.7bn budget
17 June, 2008
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| KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah presents Sindh Budget. |
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KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of finance minister, on Monday presented a Rs267.7 billion provincial budget for fiscal year 2008-09 with a total outlay of Rs89.3 billion under the Annual Development Programme.
The budget shows a deficit of Rs14.02 billion. However, the government hinted at mobilising and improving revenue collection to bridge the gap. “Estimated revenue receipts for fiscal 2008-09 from the divisible pool are Rs102.4 billion, 29 per cent higher than the outgoing year,” while estimates for oil and gas receipts showed a negative growth. These had been growing at a rate of 26 per cent in the last five years, he said.
Total transfers from the federal government were expected to be Rs177.5 billion, showing a rise of 19 per cent, while the province’s own receipts had been estimated at Rs30 billion, an increase of over 12.5 per cent over revised estimates for the outgoing year,” said the CM.
The government, he added, was attempting to contain current expenditures to minimum possible levels without compromising the essential operation and maintenance expenditures. He said the current revenue expenditures had been estimated at Rs180.9 billion, 11 per cent more that the revised target of Rs163.8 billion for the previous fiscal year.
The share of local government has been worked out to be Rs77.9 billion on the basis of existing Provincial Finance Commission Award. The chief minister also announced a 20 per cent increase in salaries and pensions of govt employees which would have an impact of over Rs10 billion on the exchequer.
He said overall grant for police had been enhanced by 28 per cent from Rs17.02 billion to Rs21.3 billion whereas salaries of Sindh police would be matched with those of Punjab and an amount Rs570 million had been budgeted for the account.
Moreover, the government allocated Rs19.5 billion for education against Rs17 billion in the previous year while Rs10.85 billion were set aside for the health sector. Besides these, an outlay of Rs18.2 billion has been targeted for the water and power sector.
Qaim Ali Shah also announced the abolition of 0.1 per cent stamp duty on electronic share transfer through the Central Depository Company (CDC), which was imposed through Finance Act 2006. Giving the explanation, he said it was being done to encourage local and foreign direct and portfolio investment.
He said special development and maintenance of infrastructure cess was being charged at the rate of 0.5 per cent of cost and freight value of imports, which “is now proposed to be enhanced by 0.3 per cent for various slabs of imports to get additional funds for the government to help it meet the cost of infrastructure maintenance.”
The cess was levied under Section 9 of the Sindh Finance Act, 1994, for the purpose of meeting the cost of wear and tear of infrastructure due to heavy transportation of goods entering the province by air or sea and for providing security.
The Sindh CM said Rs89.3 billion had been allocated for the Annual Development Programme of the province, which was 23 per cent more than the revised development budget of Rs72 billion for fiscal 2007-08.
The break-up showed that out of total development allocation, Rs55 billion would be provided for provincial ADP, Rs12 billion for district governments, Rs12.7 billion for federal development grants, Rs9.09 billion for foreign project assistance and Rs0.51 billion for DERA.
In terms of provincial and district ADP, the Sindh government has allocated Rs67 billion against Rs50 billion in 2007-08, whereas in sectoral allocation the largest share of 16 per cent has been fixed for the transport and communications sector which includes allocation of Rs9 billion for farm-to-market roads. Last year, Rs7.66 billion was allocated for such roads.
“The allocation for MPAs under the priority programme has been raised from Rs5 million to Rs10 million,” the CM said and added the government was building Sindh Heritage Fund of Rs1 billion and for the purpose Rs200 million had been earmarked in the budget.
He said there were approximately 50,000 vacant posts in different departments and the government was creating nearly 8,000 new jobs in police and other departments in 2008-09.“We are initiating a massive skill development programme called ‘Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Youth Development Programme’ as an urgent relief measure for skill development of poor, semi-literate and educated youth in Sindh for enhancing their employability,” he said.
The government was planning to train more than 100,000 youth within two years in fields linked to market demand and programmes for training 61,000 youth had been finalised, he said and elaborated that over 40,000 matriculates and below would be trained in construction and industrial skills for 3 to 12 months and approximately 8,000 youth would be trained in agriculture, livestock, fisheries extension and other trades. Besides these, 3,800 youth would be trained as paramedics and in midwife courses while around 4,000 would be trained in IT. In this context, he said, Rs2.9 billion had been allocated in the ADP while the total project cost was estimated at Rs4 billion.
He said the Sindh government would provide 100,000 houses within two to three years and in that regard a dedicated unit called Peoples Housing had been established. Qaim Ali Shah said under the Revitalisation of Rural Economy and Rural Reform Programme, the revenue department had provided details of 212,864 acres of land in different districts and of that 136,784 acres were barrage land, which could be distributed among the poor landless farmers of the same Taluka/Deh.
“We are evolving a support package, which will include microfinance and subsidised agriculture inputs and under this programme preference will be given to provision of land to female members of landless Harees,” he said while chalking out the fiscal plan for 2008-09.
The provincial government has allocated Rs2 billion for various priority schemes of Karachi, besides providing funds for ongoing and new schemes in sectors like water, sewerage and transport, whereas Rs200 million has been budgeted for the Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project.
The provincial government has vowed to expedite water supply to Baba Bhit, Shamspir and Salehabad in Manora with an allocation of Rs100 million.
It has also allocated Rs2 billion for Larkana development. Moreover, Rs500 million will be spent on clean drinking water. It has fixed Rs4.87 billion for the agriculture sector including livestock and fisheries as compared to Rs3.5 billion in fiscal 2007-08.
The provincial government also announced cancellation of all types of licences for fishing in fresh water lakes in Sindh so that the role of middlemen could be reduced which may benefit poor fishermen. Around Rs200 million has been allocated for revitalising Sukkur and Kotri industrial estates.
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