50,000 new jobs, 10pc raise in govt employees salary announced

Sindh budget 2016-17

Murad presents Rs869.1 bn tax-free finance bill; Rs50.3 bn allocated for Karachi development projects while no funds set aside for Yellow Line project

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Finance Murad Ali Shah on Saturday presented a Rs869.1 billion tax-free budget for the fiscal year 2016-17 with a deficit of Rs14.6 billion announcing 50,000 new jobs and a 10 percent increase in the salary of government employees.

No new taxes have been proposed, but an increase in rates of a few existing taxes were projected in the budget, presented amid an uproar by the opposition parties.

An amount of Rs50.3 billion has been allocated for development projects for Karachi while no funds have been set aside for the Yellow Line project.

Shah announced over 12 percent increase in the provincial development programme, and additional revenues for education, health, law and order and local government.

Shah projected a budget outlay of around 17.6 percent during the next fiscal year against the revised revenue estimates of Rs726.6 billion in the outgoing fiscal year. The provincial government eyed a 24 percent increase to the Rs154 billion in tax revenue during the next year.

“I would like to mention here that there are no new taxes which will affect the common man,” Shah told the provincial assembly. “In fact, we are reducing the rate of sales tax on services from the current 14 percent to 13 percent.”

“We will provide jobs to 50,000 people out of which a major chunk of 20,000 jobs will be in the police department; approximately 10,000 jobs will be in the education sector; 3,500 jobs will be in the health sector and the rest will be in other sectors,” he told the assembly.

Shah proposed a provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP) of Rs225 billion, which included foreign project assistance (FPA) of Rs28.8 billion, federal PSDP of Rs12.2 billion and a provincial share of Rs166 billion.

“This (provincial ADB) is an increase of 15.2 percent over the current year’s estimates of Rs144 billion and is 19.4 percent of the total provincial receipt,” Shah said.

“Revenues from the federal government are estimated at Rs561.1 billion or 65.7 percent of the total budget outlay, showing an increase of 13.6 percent over the estimated receivable of Rs494.1 billion during the ongoing fiscal year,” according to the budget document.

The finance minister also announced a 10 percent raise in the salaries of government employees.

“(A) 10 percent ad hoc relief allowance on running basic pay will be allowed to all employees with effect from July 1, 2016,” Shah said. “The previously announced ad-hoc increases of 2013 and 2014 will be merged in the pay scales.”

Shah came down hard on the Pakistan Muslim League government for not announcing the 9th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award. The new award is due since June 30, 2015.

“It is the constitutional responsibility of the federal government to announce the NFC award for a period of five years under Article 160 of the constitution,” Shah said. “I reiterate that the federal government must fulfill its constitutional obligation for the announcement of the 9th NFC award to safeguard the constitutional rights of the federating units, without any further delay.”