KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Finance Murad Ali Shah on Saturday said there has been no supplementary provincial budget for the current fiscal year of 2015-16 and the government has set its spending within the means.
“There is no outside supplementary budget on current side during this financial year,” Shah told the assembly members, while presenting proposal for the next fiscal year budget. “All the expenditure has been made from within the grants and from savings in other grants through technical supplementary.”
He said it has also transpired for the first time that the revised provincial “expenditure has been less than the budgeted expenditure.”
Shah said the total expenditure for the current fiscal year of 2015-16 was revised at Rs705.5 billion, as against the budget estimates of Rs739.3 billion, showing a cut of 4.8 percent. “The current expenditure of the province is revised at Rs522.8 billion, which includes current revenue expenditure of Rs502.8 billion and current capital expenditure of Rs20.1 billion,” Shah said. “This is a downward revision against the budget estimates of Rs525.6 billion for CFY 2015-16.”
The revised provincial receipts for the ongoing financial year of 2015-16 are estimated at Rs696.7 billion as against budget estimate of Rs726.6 billion, showing a decrease of 4.1 percent.
Receipts from the federal government on account of revenue assignment, straight transfers and grants stood at Rs494.3 billion, which are almost same as the budget estimates of Rs494.1 billion. It constituted 71.1 percent of total receipts of the province.
Receipts of federal public sector development program are revised to Rs9.9 billion; whereas foreign project assistance is revised to Rs15.6 billion. Receipts from provincial own sources on account of tax and non-tax receipts are revised to Rs133.6 billion, which constituted 19.2 percent of total receipts. This is a decrease of 7.9 percent over budget estimates of Rs144.1 billion in CFY16.
Shah said tax receipts had been revised up to Rs64.2 billion from the budget estimates of Rs63.6 billion. The downward revision is mainly on account of non-tax receipts, which have been revised down to Rs8.3 billion from the estimates of Rs19.5 billion.
“I invite the attention of the respectable members of this house to the fact that this is for the first time that the current expenditure has been revised down,” he added. “This is the result of the measures we have undertaken in the area of public financial management and shows our good control over the expenditure.”
The development expenditure of the province is revised at Rs182.5 billion, which includes provincial ADP of Rs142 billion, FPA of Rs17.1 billion, federal PSDP of Rs16.5 billion and viability gap fund of Rs7 billion for the current fiscal year. “It shows a decrease of 14.5 percent as compared to budget estimates of Rs213.6 billion for FY2015-16,” he said.