Sindh got Rs76bn less from divisible pool, CM told

Sindh's chief minister was told on Thursday that the province had received Rs76 billion less than the funds promised by the federal government.

CM Syed Murad Ali Shah was presiding over a joint meeting of the planning & development (P&D) and finance departments. P&D Chairman Muhammad Waseem and Finance Secretary Hassan Naqvi attended the meeting with their respective teams.

Briefing the chief executive on federal transfers during the current fiscal year, Naqvi said the Centre had committed to providing Rs493.2 billion against revenue assignments to Sindh.

“The last eight months' releases come to Rs328.8 billion, against which the provincial government has received only Rs252.8 billion, which shows a shortfall of Rs76 billion.”

He said the Centre had committed to providing Rs54.7 billion straight transfers to Sindh. “The eight months' share of the province comes to Rs36.4 billion, against which the receipts are of Rs36.6 billion.”

On the subject of octroi & zila tax share of Rs13.3 billion, the finance secretary said the eight months' share of Sindh was Rs8.8 billion, but the Centre had released only Rs6.8 billion, which showed a shortfall of Rs2 billion.

On this CM Shah said the provincial government was duly providing necessary funds to the local bodies. He directed Naqvi to talk to the federal finance secretary and get the remaining amount released.

He also directed him to collect the provincial receipts and targets so that necessary preparations for the next budget could be made.

He directed his P&D and finance teams to prepare proposals for the new Annual Development Programme (ADP) and the next budget so that a true uplift programme and a public-welfare budget could be prepared.

Giving guidelines for the next budget, the chief executive said that it would be public-friendly, and that education, health, irrigation, public health engineering and other public sectors would be given priority. “The ongoing schemes will be given more funds so they could be completed.”

Meanwhile, the P&D chairman said special education had an allocation of Rs213 million schemes, against which the government had released Rs47.993 million, but the expenditures were zero.

“Similarly, the Forest & Wildlife Department has also failed to utilise Rs330.9 million. The information technology and some other departments have also failed to spend their allocated funds.”

The chief executive directed the chief secretary to seek explanations from the departments that had failed to utilise the funds allocated them.