KARACHI: Due to low inflows from the centre, Sindh government has red­uced its Annual Develop­ment Plan (ADP) to Rs232.9 billion for FY21, allocating Rs155bn to provincial and Rs15bn to schemes.

The provincial government also expects Rs54.6bn from Foreign Projects Assistance and Rs8.3bn from the Federal PSDP for 10 schemes under execution by the Sindh administration.

As per the document, the administrative department in Sindh was earlier advised to prepare proposals for provincial ADP FY21 at the size same as that of 2019-20 while allocating 85 per cent for ongoing schemes and 15pc for new ones.

“The throw forward amount in Provincial ADP 2020-21 has reached Rs564bn, compared to Rs606bn in 2019-20,” said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.

85pc allotted to ongiong schemes, remaining to new ones

In exceptional cases such as health, allocation has been increased from Rs13.5bn to Rs23.5bn in order to meet the challenges arising from Covid-19.

The government allocated Rs14.8bn for the agri sector, up from Rs10.6bn in FY20. Another Rs30.48bn has been allotted to the health department while Rs5bn for Covid-19 response.

About Rs9.5bn has been earmarked for Education Foundation; the amount was allocated for the previous fiscal FY20. The government has also proposed to set aside Rs666 million for the Home Department and Rs784m for the Law and Parliamentary Affairs.

The development budget for local government has been allocated as Rs21.17bn and Rs4.46bn outlayed for the mass transit programme.

Details showed that the government has allocated Rs14.74bn for irrigation in FY21.

For 2020-21, the budget for the education sector, in a macro perspective, has been increased to Rs244.5bn, compared with Rs212.4bn for the previous fiscal year.

Despite financial constraints, the government allocated 25.2pc of the funds for current expenditure.

In ADP, the education sector got Rs21.1bn for 397 ongoing schemes and 11 new, but unapproved ones. An allotment of Rs3.1bn has been provided under foreign projects assistance (FPA) in addition to the provincial development budget resource allocation.

The School and Literacy Department has been assigned Rs13.2bn for 265 ongoing and four new schemes.

Overall allocation for the agri sector has been proposed at Rs5.5bn for FY21 for 73 schemes of agriculture, food, forest and wildlife, and livestock plus fisheries departments.

Besides the provincial budgetary resources, Rs8.1bn would be provided under the foreign projects assistance. The World Bank has a plan of Rs2.6bn for installations of 60 milk chillers with a number of new projects.

An investment of Rs7.5bn has also been made in the Accelerated Action Plan on malnutrition in both sub-sectors.

Due to locust invasions, over 35.6 hectares of various crops including cotton, vegetables, sugarcane, fodder chillies and others have been damaged.

The federal and provincial government have planned to control the locusts in the coming season through a plan costing Rs930.9m of which centre would contribute Rs204m and Sindh Rs726.8m.

Sindh government said it is committed for the revival of Rs207.5bn Circular Railway Project to address the transport problem in Karachi. It also allocated Rs3bn for construction of underpasses and overhead bridges over railway crossing along KCR route.

For the next two years, BRT Red Line (29 km) worth Rs74bn and Yellow Line (22km) at Rs61bn were included in 2019-20.

In terms of fiscal sources, Rs36.5bn has been allocated under ADP 2020-21 for 500 road schemes.

The Irrigation sector will also be given a development budget under ADP for Rs20.1bn in FY21 to complete 198 ongoing schemes.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2020