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The provincial contribution this year to the ADP is almost 100 per cent,
which makes it different from the last year.
Despite the deficit budget presented by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, the
provincial contribution in the ADP looks encouraging as the province will
contribute Rs74.977 billion for the total Rs75 billion.
Last year, the provincial government contributed Rs54.775 billion for the total
ADP of Rs69.631 billion.
The chief minister in his budget speech said the total size of the development
portfolio had touched Rs113 billion, which includes Rs75 billion as ADP, Rs15
billion for district governments, federal PSDP grants at Rs16.6 billion and
foreign project assistance and others at Rs6.3 billion.
The province will spend Rs4.663 billion on the development of agriculture but it
significantly reduced its tax income target from agriculture.
The budget document shows that the province estimates to receive Rs200 million
as taxes from agriculture, while it had set a target of Rs350 million last year
but could collect Rs190 million only.
The province decided to increase expenditure on agriculture, food, irrigation,
forestry and fishing to Rs14.173 billion, which is higher than the revised
estimate of last year. Allocation for Agriculture has been increased by 89 per
cent to Rs4.8 billion compared to Rs2.3 billion of last year.
The budget estimates reveal that the province will receive Rs56.120 billion as
direct taxes against the indirect taxes of Rs80.688 billion. The indirect taxes
are inclusive of 2.5 per cent of the provincial share in GST, which amounts to
Rs35.531 billion.
According to the budget the health development outlay has been increased by 49
per cent to Rs5.23 billion from Rs3.5 billion earlier.
Revenue expenses for hospital services have been increased significantly to
Rs7.257 billion against last year’s revised estimates of Rs5.851 billion.
The overall spending on health will be Rs10.567 billion, higher than last year’s
Rs8.731 billion.
Overall Police budget has been pitched at Rs24.2 billion for the fiscal 2009-10,
which is 11 per cent higher than last year. This includes Rs1.2 billion for
vehicles, surveillance, arms and ammunitions. The province will add another
5,000 posts to expand the force.
The province plans to spend Rs1.492 billion development of courts and justice
department.
The province increased the overall allocation for education on development side
at Rs6 billion, which is 27 per cent higher than last year.
The province will receive $100 million for Education Reform Programme, which is
already being implemented. The chief minister announced that the Girl Child’s
stipend is being increased to Rs2400 per year from Rs1,000 per year earlier.
Over 330,000 girls will benefit from the scheme.
He said the province had finally decided to launch the ‘Sindh Bank’ which was
announced last year. Sindh Bank will be a commercial bank with private sector’s
majority shares and the bank would have a big component of microfinance and
agriculture credit.
The debt situation did not look satisfactory for the province as it will have to
pay Rs7.977 billion as interest in the fiscal 2009-10, which includes Rs2.467
billion as the interest on domestic debt payment to the federal government.
As part of current revenue expenditure, a large amount of Rs17.6 billion will be
spent for economic affairs that include distributive trades, storage and
warehouses.
Environmental protection also attracted more money than last year. According to
the budget document Rs816 million will be spent on environmental protection,
which is much higher than the revised estimate of Rs317 million of last year.
The budget shows a spending of Rs2.147 billion on housing and community
amenities against last year’s Rs2.318 billion. |
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