The PPP-led democratically-elected Sindh government has been able to utilize 65 percent of the development funds it allocated during the last four annual provincial budgets. Of the “whopping” Rs 413.5 billion earmarked for development during a four-year period, ranging from FY2008-09 to February FY12, the Sindh government spent only 270.2 billion, letting the remaining huge sum of Rs 143.3 billion or 34.65 percent lapse. Further, in what appears to be at this juncture a wishful thinking, the Sindh government is foreseeing the energy-scarce Pakistan to become a “power house” of the Asian region within next few years, as a host of foreign firms were committed to invest around $ 20 billion in the wind and coal related energy projects in the province. Unveiling his government’s four-year performance report here in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said his government during 2008-2011 had allocated a development budget of Rs 413 billion, of which Rs 318 billion were earmarked under the Annual Development Program.
However, he said during the review period of the total allocated Rs 413.5 billion the concerned authorities released Rs 325.8 billion of which only Rs 270.2 billion were utilized. “The need for full and proper utilization of these funds, however, remains,” the chief minister said while looking at the Officers’ Gallery filled mostly by the secretaries of provincial departments. Further, to develop the province’s agriculture sector, Shah said, the government had increased its expenditure by 300 times to Rs 11 billion in FY11 against 4.8 billion of FY07-08. Some 30,000 water courses had also been improved besides the plugging of hundreds of breaches developed in the canals in the wake of repeated natural calamities. About flood relief efforts, he said Sindh government had spent Rs 41 billion on account of relief and Watan Cards during the disasters of 2010 and 2011, the damages of which were estimated at Rs 464 billion. On the fiscal management and development side, Shah said Sindh Revenue Board was expected to collect sales tax on services worth Rs 18.5 billion till March 2012 against Rs 8.3 billion transferred by the federal government in 2011. About energy sector, the chief minister said a host of foreign companies were willing to invest around $ 20 billion in the wind and coal related energy projects in the province, especially the “prestigious” Thar coal project. It says over two dozens foreign companies from countries like China, Turkey, Britain, South Korea and others are working on the wind and coal and have the capacity to add up to 10,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid by 2020. “They have committed to invest around US$20 billion,” he said. Blasting Sharif brothers for their short-mindedness that rendered the Punjab’s rulers unable to tap the country’s waste natural resources like coal, Shah said the said two resources had the potential to add more than 25 percent of the total current installed capacity of the country within next few years. “This government has taken very bold steps to convert Pakistan into a power house of Asia,” the chief minister told the desk-thumping provincial lawmakers. The steps taken, he said, would also in turn be pivotal for economic growth and job creation across the country. About Thar Coal power project, Shah said, a host of foreign firms were busy in various mining and gasification works on the Thar coalfields while 30 to 35 others applications were pending for the want of federal government’s clearance for the allotment of land. M/s Oracle, a firm listed at the British stock exchange, would be investing over Rs 2.5 billion and would start mining at one of the four blocks at Thar coal fields. “We would get 4000 to 5000MW of electricity from Thar Coal project by 2015,” said he. The Sindh chief minister slammed the past rulers, particularly the Sharif brothers, for devising flawed energy policies under which the country was compelled to import 6 million tons of coal despite the availability of 176 billion tons of coal reserves in the country.
