‘Include all stakeholders in budget-making’

LAHORE
Speakers at a seminar urged the government to include stakeholders in the budget-making process to ensure maximum utilisation of resources for the betterment of common man.
The seminar on National and Provincial Budget 2015-2016 arranged Wednesday by an NGO reviewed national and provincial budgets for the ongoing fiscal year and what they offered to the marginalized sections of society including working women in informal sector.
A detailed review of the federal and provincial budgets was offered by renowned economist Dr Qais Aslam who briefed the audience the budgetary allocations respective governments had made, their priority areas and the sectors they had neglected altogether. It was also pointed that budget-making exercise was exclusive domain of bureaucrats, and other major stakeholders including civil society organizations, lawyers, media, workers, etc. were not taken onboard.
The event started with a welcome address by Javed Pasha, senior program officer, who apprised participants on objectives of holding seminar and introduced them to the topic. He said it was of prime importance that civil society came up with recommendations for inclusion of informal sector in budgets.
He also urged the need for active and constant engagement of lawmakers in the budget-making process, and establishment of monitoring mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability in allocation and utilization of resources.
Maria Kokab addressed the audience and talked about creating spaces by engaging relevant stakeholders in budget-making process. She said the informal sector comprised women workers who were around 73 per cent of total workforce. So, she said, it was illogical to ignore an important segment of economy in budgets and not allocate enough funds for their uplift. She also demanded that government hold local government elections without delay so that the issues of women workers and other deprived sections of the society could be solved at their doorstep.
Dr Qais said government policies were framed so that they protected interests of the privileged few instead of the masses. He said the reason for this neglect was that the budgets here were made by people who had their own priorities. He suggested that all the budgetary documents that were required to initiate the process should be gender-sensitive as well as poor-sensitive.
Dr Qais said though there were huge allocations for different sectors the fate of around 56 million HBWs was still hanging in the balance. He said the government had announced a minimum wage of Rs 13,000 but there was no mechanism in place to ensure its payment in the informal sector. He said he had remained part of the minimum wage board and found that the government was helpless in this regard.
About budgetary allocations, Dr Qais said both the federal and the Punjab governments had hardly allocated funds for social protection of citizens, development of the informal sector of the economy, environment protection and so on. On the other hand, he said, the government had allocated Rs 41 billion for Pakistan Railways which catered to only 4 per cent of the country’s passenger traffic and cargo. Besides, he said, the shortfall in the last year’s revenue collection had directly resulted in a cut in development budget and current expenditures had remained unaffected.
Sajid Baloch said it was a pity that women worked from dawn to dusk at homes and in agricultural fields but their services were not acknowledged. He regretted that women workers had been taken for granted.