QUETTA: Balochistan’s Rs243.5 billion consolidated deficit budget for the next financial year proposes to spike its current revenue expenditure by around 25 per cent to Rs168.5bn and development spending by a mere 6.4pc to Rs51.08bn from the original estimates for the outgoing year.

The budget carries a hefty deficit of Rs26bn, which is 10.7pc of the size of the consolidated budget outlay and 12pc of the estimated revenue of Rs217.5bn. It is 66pc greater than the financing gap of Rs15.6bn originally estimated in the current fiscal year’s budget.

The massive deficit means that the Dr Abdul Malik government will be constrained to significantly revise down funding for development projects at the expense of jobs and social sector. It has already cut its development spending by 13.5pc to Rs41.5bn, the social sector being a major victim of the financing gap.

Provincial finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani explained to Dawn that the additional expenditure of almost Rs17bn on account of a spike in subsidy for tube-wells (Rs8bn) and salaries of police and Levies force (Rs4bn), allocations for the devolved functions (Rs2.7bn) and purchase of a helicopter (Rs2bn) were responsible for the sharp increase in the revenue budget.

The provincial government expects to get 72pc (Rs156bn) of its total income from the federal divisible tax pool and 6.7pc (Rs14.72bn) as straight transfers and a rise of 3.6pc (Rs7.85bn) from its own tax and non-tax resources.

A revenue of about Rs28bn will be raised under the head of capital account against capital expenditure of Rs20bn.

The total size of the province’s development expenditure is expected to marginally rise to Rs54.5bn after realisation of the promised foreign project assistance of Rs3.4bn. The total development spending will be 22.4pc of the total budgetary outlay and 25pc of the entire provincial income.

The current expenditure will be 77.6pc of the provincial consolidated fund (total budgetary outlay) and 87pc of the income.

Investment spending will focus on road infrastructure (Rs10.85bn), solar and coal energy projects (Rs3.56bn), health and public health engineering (Rs8.47bn), education (Rs10bn), water sector (Rs2.9bn) and agriculture (Rs4.2bn).

Almost Rs6bn has been set aside for local governments and another Rs2.6bn as bloc allocation to be spent through members of the assembly.

RESOURCE CRUNCH: In his speech the provincial adviser on finance, Mir Khalid Khan Langau, said the government was implementing strict financial discipline in view of the resource crunch.

“We’ve already set up the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority to bring transparency and inefficiency in public procurement and plan to establish Balochistan Revenue Authority for collecting provincial general sales tax on services,” he said.

He said the government had banned the purchase of luxury cars and was taking other steps to cut unnecessary expenditure.

The adviser said the government was focusing on creating infrastructure in order to encourage private investment in industry to create jobs. Special economic zones were planned for Quetta and Lasbela and industrial estates will be set up in Hub, Dera Jamali and Gwadar.

He said the government had acquired land for industrial estates in Gwadar, Kech and Muslim Bagh.

Mr Langau said the government’s target was to create 5,000 jobs in the public sector, provide facilities for technical training and give incentives to government employees like upgradation of various posts in up to BPS-16. “Big city status” for Gwadar and a raise in the monthly stipend of nurses are also under consideration.

He said the minimum wage was being raised to Rs13,000 per month. The government was taking action to protect women from harassment and violence, he added.

The adviser said the government was paying special attention to development of the mineral sector and had allocated Rs1.59bn to department concerned. Illegal lease contracts have been cancelled.

“We will tackle Reko Diq issues in a transparent manner and are already negotiating with the federal government for the transfer of Saindak project to the province. The fisheries sector in Gwadar will also be developed at a faster pace,” he added.

The provincial government planned to set up three medical colleges, improve EPI coverage, control hepatitis, initiate health insurance programme, provide free medicines to the poor and build new hospitals in the province, according to Mr Langau.

In the education sector, he said, new initiatives were being planned to increase literacy and extend coverage of school, college and university education to the entire province.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play