The Sindh government which terms the National Finance Award (NFC) a big achievement should also distribute the available financial resources among all the districts of Sindh on the basis of the NFC formula to ensure justice and equity.
This was demanded by members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on the first day of general discussion on provincial budget 2016-17 in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday.
MQM Parliamentary Leader Syed Sardar Ahmad opened the debate and said that the Sindh government should ensure distribution of the budgetary resources amongst the districts of the province on the basis of the NFC formula. He said there was a dire need to bring positive changes in the province.
He demanded that the local governments should be made fully functional as it was a constitutional requirement. He said working of the local government bodies would help in resolving problems at grassroots level. He said corruption was a curse and serious steps should be taken to stop this menace. He demanded to rid people of the burden of indirect taxes. He said tax on services should not be more than 10per cent.
He harshly criticised the ‘state trading’ and termed it a sheer wastage of taxpayers’ money to increase the profits of commercial banks at the cost of people. He asked as to why the government was purchasing more wheat than its storage capacity, getting unnecessary loans from the commercial banks and paying these commercial banks billions of rupees as interest on these unnecessary loans. He said the government of Sindh should determine its strategic storage needs of wheat and refrain from purchasing more commodity than its required need. He urged to stop the malpractice of getting loans from commercial banks for the procurement of wheat and thus save billions of rupees every year that are paid to these commercial banks every year. He asked to provide wheat flour on subsided rates to citizens living in poor localities and slums on the basis of rationing system.
He asked to give the citizens of Sindh a proper social security cover. He demanded to restart the health insurance scheme and further widen its scope.
The MQM leaders said every year billions of rupees were spent on police which proved useless and services of other agencies like Rangers were required to maintain peace in the province. He asked for drastic police reforms to make the police force self-sufficient for policing duty, adding that Rangers and other agencies were not a permanent solution. He also demanded for agriculture and land reforms on the pattern of neighbouring India. He regretted that their rural areas were neglected for which he suggested land reforms to empower them.
Another MQM lawmaker Mahmood Abdul Razaq also demanded distribution of resources amongst the districts on basis of NFC formula. He quoted figures of present and previous budgets and showed that there was a wide gap in estimated and real figures. He said the government of Sindh had sadly failed in fully utilising the released funds. He said the provincial government had termed education its top-most priority but it failed to even spend half of the education budget of the previous year.
Saeed Khan Nizamani of the PML-F said the PPP ministers should take a solemn oath in this holy month of Ramzan that they would not receive any bribe or commission in the coming fiscal year.
However, from the treasury side Sharmila Faruqi and Sohrab Sarki spoke and defended the government. They said the budget was pro-poor, balanced and pro-people. They said under the present leadership the province of Sindh was put on the path of progress and prosperity. They said there was not poverty in rural areas of Sindh and the opposition was only trying to depict a gloomy picture which was far from the reality. Later, the speaker adjourned the House till Wednesday at 10:00am.