Sindh presents Rs882m surplus, tax-free budget
KARACHI: The Sindh government on Friday presented a Rs882 million surplus tax free budget for 2011/2012 with a total outlay of Rs457.5 billion and total receipts pitched at Rs458.4 billion.
Sindh Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah presented the budget in the Sindh Assembly with the total development outlay of the province for the next fiscal year at Rs161 billion, under which Rs111 billion will be provided through the provincial government’s own resources while another Rs20 billion will be provided through foreign projects.
The provincial government has prioritised to divert most of its fiscal resources during the next fiscal year to education and health, women empowerment, energy sector and agriculture.
The finance minister said that the priority being given to the education sector can be gauged from the fact that the total current budget for education, including technical education, has increased from Rs22.8 billion during the outgoing year to Rs26.2 billion for FY12, showing an increase of 15 percent. “We believe that education is the key to changing the mindsets that have hindered our development,” Murad Ali Shah added.
The minister announced that the government had succeeded in establishing new universities at Lyari and Benazirabad. “The classes at both the universities are expected to commence from September 2011,” he added.
The minister also highlighted the steps being taken for the empowerment of women in the province. “Under the “Women Economic Empowerment” initiative, 13,000 women are being trained in stitching-tailoring at 350 village-based training centres in all the districts of Sindh,” he said. “Likewise, 6,700 women are being trained as Lady Livestock Workers and women Haaris have been given tracts of agricultural land,” he added.
The Sindh government allocated Rs6.9 billion for schemes of health sector. The minister said that during the ongoing fiscal year, the government kept Rs6.3 billion in the ADP for the health sector, “but due to floods, the allocation was revised to Rs4.095 billion.” Regarding the future schemes in the health sector, the minister said that the number of maternity homes functional round the clock would be increased to 100 from 28.
In the energy sector, the provincial government intended to continue the ongoing work on the Thar coal-fired energy projects. The government has allocated Rs3.71 billion for the energy sector. The minister stressed the need to materialise electricity generation from Thar coal.
The minister stated that the joint venture project of Sindh government and Engro Group, being executed through SPV of Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company, was created to boost the potential in a record period of eight months.
The Sindh/federal governments have included this project in the list of projects to be taken up with the Pak-China Joint Energy Working Group (JEWG), which was formed during the last visit of prime minister of the Peoples Republic of China to Pakistan. Leading Chinese companies have shown interest in executing this project, he added.
On the condition of financial arrangements, the minister said, ìThe mining and power generation from this project is expected in 2015/2016 upon the financing arrangement for the project.î He said that around $1.2 billion was needed in the next five years to develop the required infrastructure for Thar.
In the agriculture sector, the provincial government has allocated an amount of Rs6.053 billion that is 3.9 percent of the overall development budget. The provincial government estimated crop yield at 4.22 million metric tonnes during the ongoing year as against the last yearís estimate of 3.7 million metric tonnes.
During the ongoing year, the provincial government provided 4,736 tractors to farmers at subsidised rates; distributed 48,806 metric tonnes of wheat seed and 31,527 bags of Urea fertiliser free of cost to farmers in the flood-affected areas during the Rabi season 2010/2011.
About the launch of the Sindh Bank on March 31, 2011, the minister said that it had posted Rs451 million net income as against expenses of Rs68.76 million, depicting a pre-tax profit of Rs382.47 million for just three months of operations. ìThe bank management is expecting a profit of Rs1.5 billion in its first year of operation,î he added.
The minister said that during the next fiscal year, the focus will be on rehabilitation of the flood-affected villages. ìA major scheme for rehabilitation of 200 flood-affected villages consisting of 40,000 houses has been included in the ADP and an allocation Rs2 billion kept for the purpose,î the minister said.
About the agriculture income tax, the minister said that the concept was widely misunderstood. He said it was imposed and collected under the Sindh Land Tax and Agriculture Income Tax. ìOver the past 10 years, lesser control over revenue officers has led to collections going down by 50 per cent,î he added. Under this head, this year the collection target of Rs300 million will be achieved, the minister said. ìFor the next financial year, the target is set at Rs500 million,î he added.
About devolution, he said that as a result of the 18th Amendment, the Concurrent Legislative List of the Constitution had been abolished and the functions of 18 divisions were being devolved to provincial governments. The Sindh government has kept an allocation of one billion rupees to meet the cost of current expenditure of the devolved institutions/departments from July 1, 2011.
For law and justice, the Sindh government has increased the allocation from Rs2.49 billion during the outgoing financial year to Rs3.38 billion for the next financial year; an increase of 35 percent. ìThe increased expenditure will be incurred on the creation of 190 new posts and purchase of physical assets and transport for judicial officers,î the minister said.
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