LAHORE, June 14: Punjab Finance Minister Hasnain Bahadur Dreshak on Saturday presented before the provincial assembly a surplus budget for 2003-04, estimating an income of Rs149.346 billion and revenue expenditure of Rs129.195 billion amid combined opposition’s protests and slogan-chanting against the LFO and the president.
The budget carries a surplus Rs22.111 billion and includes net capital receipts of Rs1.859 billion and net public accounts receipts of Rs100 million.
The budget is 14 per cent bigger in size than that of the closing year’s estimates of Rs130.725 billion. The revised estimates of income are put at Rs129.336 billion
The estimates of expenditure for the next fiscal year are Rs129.195 billion against the outgoing year’s estimates of Rs117.1 billion. The revised estimates for this year stand at Rs115.022 billion.
Though the government has not imposed any new tax, it seeks to mobilize additional tax resource of Rs105 million by revising the existing taxes, including the motor vehicle tax. At the same time, it has brought down stamp duty and registration fee to boost the housing sector.
The finance minister stopped short of explaining the “positive or negative impact” of the downward revision of taxes on tax receipts of the province. The tax receipts are, however, expected to go up to Rs15.773 billion next year against the current year’s budgetary estimates of Rs13.799 billion and the revised estimates of Rs14.085 billion.
ADP: In his maiden budget speech, the minister announced an annual development programme of Rs30.5 billion that will be financed through a provincial contribution of Rs22.111 billion it has saved from the current budget and foreign loans (from the ADB and the World Bank) of Rs8.3 billion. Another Rs88.616 million will be made available for development in the form of grants.
The development spending for the year 2003-04 is around 47 per cent higher than the estimated Rs20.750 billion for the outgoing year, and 26.30pc greater than the revised estimates of Rs24.147 billion.
LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: A total Rs63.858 billion, showing an increase of Rs3.505 billion over the budgetary estimates of the outgoing year’s allocations of Rs60.353 billion, has been set aside for 34 districts, 122 Tehsil Municipal Administrations and 3,453 Union Councils for financing their nondevelopment budgets and development programmes next year.
While the districts have been allocated Rs54.309 billion, TMAs will get Rs6.847 billion and UCs Rs2.702 billion. Moreover, Rs2 billion will be given to 122 TMAs on account of UIP tax, raising the resource outlay for them to Rs65.858 billion. The outstanding loan of Rs4 billion due to be paid by TMAs would be written off as an incentive to allow them to serve people.
A Rs4.28 billion Punjab Community Water Supply and Sanitation Programme is being launched in 54 tehsils of 26 districts. The Punjab Municipal Development Fund Company will be activated to provide matching grants to districts with less than one million people for the development of infrastructure and other projects. A Punjab Urban Development Agency has been proposed to be established to prepare master plans for these districts.
Local governments have received the same amount of Rs9 billion from the allocation for the ADP for the next year as was given to them from the ongoing year’s development programme.
FEDERAL TRANSFERS: The provincial government expects to receive Rs117 billion from the Centre in 2003-04 to finance its budget compared to budgetary estimates of Rs107.983 billion and revised estimates of Rs106.31 billion during the outgoing year.
Punjab will obtain Rs101.166 billion as its share from federal divisible taxes against the current year’s estimates of Rs92.162 billion and revised estimates of Rs90.9 billion. A sum of Rs4.156 billion will be provided to the province in the shape of straight transfers against this year’s budgetary estimates of Rs3.785 billion and revised estimates of Rs4.009 billion. Another Rs13.678 billion will pour in as other federal transfers against the budgetary estimates of Rs12.036 billion and revised estimates of Rs11.122 billion for the closing year.
The remaining amount of Rs32.346 billion will be mobilized by the province from its own resources, including the tax and non-tax receipts of Rs15.773 billion and Rs14.572 billion, respectively.
REVENUE EXPENDITURE: During the next fiscal, the province is going to spend Rs15.320 billion on the general administration, Rs15.776 billion on law and order, Rs1.949 billion on community services, Rs10.889 billion on social services, Rs10.612 billion on economic services, Rs1.920 billion on subsidies, and Rs72.725 billion on debt servicing, investible funds and grants.
The non-development expenditure of such devolved departments as education and health is not reflected in the budget. A senior finance department official said his department would be in a position to give consolidated spending (development and current expenditure) on such departments on or after July 15 after it received the local governments’ budgets. The districts were supposed to finalize their budgets by June 30, he added.
“We cannot reflect in the provincial budget the allocations to be actually made by local governments in their respective budgets on different devolved departments because the LGO 2001 prescribes single line transfer to them.” However, the official said, the “projections for the next three years have been given in the white paper”.
SUPPLEMENTARY BUDGET: The minister also presented the supplementary budget of Rs22 billion for the current year, including Rs11 billion repaid to the banks on account of credit obtained for procurement of wheat and additional development spending of Rs4 billion.
In his speech, Mr Dreshak said the government had decided to spend its savings on the development of the province. He said the projects completed in the past would be given maximum allocations for their maintenance and repair. However, the government would also undertake several new development projects in various areas.
SPEECH: The minister started off with praise for the economic policies of President General Pervez Musharraf which, he said, had brought the country back from the brink of default. He also gave details of some of the projects that the Punjab government intends to undertake during the year.
He also spoke highly of Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi for having given a three-year rolling development programme for the uplift of the people of the province.
PROTEST: The opposition legislators led by Qasim Zia got to their feet no sooner than Speaker Mohammad Afzal Sahi had invited the minister to present the budget.
They started shouting “Go Musharraf, go” and “LFO Na Manzoor”, and thumped their desks to cause noise at the commencement of the speech before walking out of the house in protest against the LFO and President Gen Musharraf’s refusal to quit his army post.
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