Murad hopes to inaugurate KCR revival work on March 23

Expressing hope that work on reviving the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) would begin soon, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that he is expecting to give good news about the project to Karachi citizens on March 23, celebrated as Pakistan Day countrywide.

Speaking to the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing, who called on the CM on Thursday, Shah said that the people of the city are expecting KCR revival work to begin soon. He pointed out that even though he had discussed the project’s financial close with CPEC authorities, including the ambassador, revival work still could not initiated on the Quaid-e-Azam’s birthday last year as he had originally wished.

Ambassador Jing told the CM that KCR was in the pipeline and its financial close is expected by the end of next month (February). Stating his wish to inaugurate the project initiation on March 23, CM Shah said. “I am going to give good news to the people of Karachi who need KCR in March.” The two also discussed others projects including Dhabeji Special Economic Zone and Keti Bandar. On the CM’s invitation, the ambassador vowed to visit Thar next month.

Murad orders audit of pension payments

Meanwhile, while presiding over a meeting of the three-year Budget Strategy 2016-17 to 2020-21 CM took notice of the province’s huge expenditure on payment of pensions and ordered a high-level inquiry into the matter.

Principal Secretary to the CM Sohail Rajput, officers of finance department, planning & development department and Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) attended the meeting.

During the presentation, the chief minister was told that during the financial year of 2015-16, the payments of pension were recorded at Rs52.8 billion; the figure went up to Rs70 billion in 2016-17, while in 2017-18 it increased to Rs76 billion.

Shah said that the amount being spent on payments of pension is quite huge and seems to be dubious. He directed the principal secretary, Rajput, to constitute a high-level inquiry and an audit committee to investigate the payments. “The audit and inquiry should be started from the districts where huge payments have been made,” he said. He added that the audit must be made in a most professional and transparent manner. “You can hire the services of any professional auditor, if you need,” he said.

The CM also directed the finance department to computerise the entire pension system, along with the payments and number of pensioners, stating that there should a software to record and maintain all this information.

Moreover, the CM was also told that in 2015-16, the province’s development expenditure was Rs137.3 billion, in 2016-17 it was Rs210.1 billion and in 2017-18 Rs344.1 billion. The meeting was told that during the last three years revenue receipts have shown an increase of 8.9 per cent while the next year an increase of 14 per cent is expected. During 2015-16 Rs650.9 billion were received, in 2016-17 Rs692.9 billion, while in 2017-18 Rs854.3 billion is expected to be received.

The CM was further told that straight transfers from the federal government amounted to Rs518 billion in 2015-16, Rs539.9 billion in 2016-17, Rs654.6 billion in 2017-18. The provincial government expects that in 2018-19 it would be around Rs743.1 billion, in 2019-20 Rs845.4 billion and in 2020-21 933.4 billion is expected.

The chief minister directed his finance and P&D department team to make budget strategy, particularly of development projects, as per the projected figures. It was also pointed out that in the head of Services on Sales Tax, Rs61.5 billion was received in 2015-16, Rs78.5 billion in 2016-17 and Rs100 billion is expected in 2017-18, while in 2018-19 Rs115 billion is expected.