Minister dispels ‘govt presented non-deficit budget’

Balochistan Finance Minister Mir Asim Kurd Gaillu has dispelled the impression that government has presented a non-deficit budget for the next fiscal year.
He said a balanced budget was presented because the province had enough resources to cater its need in the next year. He stated this while addressing post-budget briefing here on Tuesday. Provincial Information Minister Yunis Mullazai and Finance Secretary Dostain Jamaldini were also present on the occasion.
He said the next financial year was the election year and the present government did not want to create impression that the government members would dole out the public money for their elections campaign by presenting a deficit budget. He said the government had allocated appropriate funds for law and order, education, health and energy sectors as government believed in financial discipline to move forward by keeping a check on expenditure on development or non-development expenditure.
To a query, he dispelled the impression that MPAs were getting cash under the head of development schemes rather identified schemes in their constituencies which were included in annual development program on merit. He denied that annual MPA fund had been increased, however, he said that Rs 250 million to 300 million was placed on the disposal of MPAs for identifying development schemes in their respective constituencies. He said the schemes would also be scrutinised whether they were on merit or not before releasing funds, adding media persons might inspect these development schemes in all districts in Balochistan.
Mir Asim Gaillu said Rs 179.93 billion Balochistan Budget for fiscal year 2012-13 includes Rs 107.28 billion for ongoing expenditures, Rs 36.83 billion for investment expenditures and Rs 35.81 billion for development expenditures.
Responding to a query about expenditures on deployment of Frontier Corps Balochistan in various areas, he said the government was spending Rs 210 million on the Frontier Corps Balochistan in respect of fuel and patrolling expenditures to maintain law and order in the province.
He said heavy funds had been released to the FC Balochistan Headquarters so that it could play its role in providing security and protection to people of Balochistan.
Some Rs 13.53 billon had been allocated for law and order in new budget with an increase of 19.6 percent in police budget, 13 percent in Balochistan Constabulary and 16 percent in Levies Force, he said. He said these resources would be for procurement of equipments, vehicles and weapons.
When finance minister’s attention was drawn towards dilapidated condition of roads in Quetta and in the interior of province, he conceded that roads in Balochistan including Quetta were in bad condition and needed prompt repairing.
He held Wasa, Sui Southern Gas and other departments responsible for dilapidated condition of roads in the Quetta and said these utility providers used to dig roads for laying their pipes without any coordination and the practice had turned the city into ruins.
Referring to education sector, he said 85 percent of education budget was allocated for the release of salaries of teachers and other staff. He, however, regretted that teachers in Balochistan used to close schools and took to streets to stage rallies and observe strike to press for their undue demands. He said they all had to discourage that practice since it was destroying our education, adding that special attention had been given to academic activities, convening of seminars and timely printing of textbooks in new budget.
He said power plants of the Balochistan including Hubco, Uchh and Habibullah Coastal had presently been generating over 1,450 MW electricity and if total production of these power plants had been used in Balochistan, the province would not have face load shedding.
He said that Rs 3 billion had been allocated for energy sector and work was underway on a project at Koh-e-Suleman of Chaghi district and it was expected that over 10,000 Megawatt electricity would be generated from it. Besides that, he said, an agreement of purchasing 1,000 Megawatt electricity from Iran had also been made which would help minimize power shortage in the province.
To a query about purchasing aircraft of Rs 1.30 billion for Chief Minister from the kitty of poor province of Balochistan, Mir Asim Gaillu said the plane which was in use of provincial governor and chief minister had become outdated for being repaired many times. He said the incumbent Balochistan government had done that for the benefit of upcoming government as it was completing its tenure.
In health sector, he said the provincial government had provided Rs 700 million to major hospitals in the country so that patients from Balochistan could get medical treatment there.
He said the government was also focusing on agriculture sector and had restored subsidy on tube wells being used for agriculture purpose. Some Rs 4 billion was being given by federal government and Rs 3 billion by Balochistan government to continue concession to the farmers.
In order to stop corruption, he said an anti-corruption department was being made functional and funds had also been allocated in this connection.