Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday unveiled a tax-free provincial surplus budget with a record outlay of Rs 457.546 billion for the financial year 2011-12.
The Sindh government had come with a fiscal plan envisaging a surplus of Rs 882.1 million. The budget for the fiscal year 2011-12 shows an increase of Rs 35.295 million or 8.3 percent compared to the Rs 422.251 billion-budget of FY11/12.
“This year’s budget has been achieved in the sprit of reconciliation and participatory politics, aimed towards the establishment of a just, equitable, egalitarian society,” Shah said while unveiling his government’s fourth budget in the House.
“The fresh budget is free of any new taxes, especially on agriculture income. I am pleased to be presenting this budget that is free of any new tax,” the finance minister said. The development outlay for the next year has been set at Rs 161 billion, up by 5.2 percent, from previous year’s outlay of Rs 153.085 billion.
The finance minister said last year’s devastating floods had forced the government to curtail its non-development expenditure by a “sizeable” amount and revise the ADP to Rs 77 billion from the original allocation of Rs 115 billion.
Of the development expenditure for FY12, Rs 141.090 billion would go to the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP), foreign project assistance and other grants, while Rs 20 billion would go to the ADP to be undertaken by the district governments.
Total revenue has been estimated at Rs 458.4288 billion, a growth of 15 percent over last year’s target of Rs 397.097 billion.
The Sindh government has allocated Rs 146.276 billion for the provincial government, Rs 135.171 billion for the local governments and Rs 1.7 billion for the tied grant to DSGs for school specific (non-salary) expenses.
The government envisages its current capital receipts and expenditure to aggregate to Rs 27.003 billion and Rs 33.309 billion, respectively.
Sindh government expects to receive Rs 6.881 billion on account of local repayments/loans, DPC/SWAP, Rs 8.6 billion form the World Bank, Rs 943.9 million in the European Commission’s grants, and Rs 10.578 billion from the Asian Development Bank. The salaries of government employees would also be increased by 15 percent, while pensions would also go up by to 20 percent.