KARACHI:
Sindh Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah presented the provincial governments proposed Rs739 billion budget, with only marginal increases in regular expenditures and an actual cut in the development budget, according to sources.
Sindh is also likely to be the only province that will run a budget deficit.
The single biggest allocation was towards education, in the Sindh province.
“The government of Sindh attaches the utmost priority to education,” said Shah, in his speech on the floor of the Sindh Assembly in Karachi on Saturday.
The total allocation for education will be Rs153 billion for fiscal 2016, up by 7.2% compared to the outgoing year. However, education only accounts for 21.2% of the Sindh budget, compared to 27% of the Punjab budget. Of that amount, Rs13.2 billion is for the education development budget, up from Rs11 billion in fiscal 2015, according to sources.
The budget also contained several measures focused on expanding the public sector, such as increasing minimum wages, more government jobs, increasing government employee salaries and their medical allowances, and pensions increasing.
