By Sabihuddin Ghausi
QUETTA, June 22: Presenting its Rs46.37 billion 2005-6 budget with a record deficit of Rs13.24 billion, the government of Balochistan announced on Wednesday its historic decision to provide free education up to intermediate.
Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah described it as a tax-free budget, but the opposition in the provincial assembly called it a ’hollow’ document which was without the additional resources that should have come from the much-awaited award of the National Finance Commission.
The third consecutive budget without an NFC award sparked uproar in the assembly.
The minister announced that 10,000 jobs would be created in the next financial year - 2,500 new and 7,500 to fill vacancies.
He announced an ambitious Rs11.76 billion development outlay. However, there was no document elaborating sectoral allocations of the development fund. The minister announced free education up to intermediate, but did not say anything about the budgetary impact of the decision.
Except for admission fee, the government has decided to stop recovering all charges and fees in all state-run institutions up to intermediate," Syed Ehsan Shah declared.
"Millions of rupees are being provided at present by the provincial government to give free textbooks in primary schools," the minister said, adding that all such funds were now being transferred to district governments to enable them to buy books in accordance with needs of students.
The government, he pointed out, was spending Rs2 billion a year on education which was in addition to the expenditures on education being made at the district level.
The budget proceedings of the assembly started an hour late as about a dozen treasury members, including some ministers belonging to the PML (Q), decided to stay away from the house. The tiny opposition of 15 members took full advantage of the depletion on the treasury benches and that kept the business suspended for almost 25 minutes.
The main assertion of the opposition was that the budget was without any substance in the absence of the NFC award. "The biggest and the poorest province is being robbed of its legitimate share in national resources," an angry opposition member was heard saying at the top of his voice. He demanded that a panel of Supreme Court judges be appointed to look into the way the federal government had grabbed the natural sources of Balochistan.
Unlike the finance ministers of Sindh and the NWFP who in their budget speeches discussed in detail the implications of the NFC stalemate on the budgetary positions of their provinces, the Balochistan minister did not say anything on the issue.
The budget allocates Rs34.61 billion for the current revenue expenditure and Rs11.76 billion as development outlay.
Against the revenue expenditure of Rs34.61 billion, the government expects a revenue income of Rs27.55 billion, showing a gap of Rs5.44 billion.
For the development outlay of Rs11.76 billion for the fiscal year, there is a meagre allocation of Rs2.76 billion foreign assistance. The public sector development programme outlay is Rs9 billion. A note in the budget document says that if the federal government does not provide Rs8 billion, the budget deficit will increase to Rs13.24 billion.
On the capital side, the expenditure is indicated at Rs2.91 billion as against receipts of Rs2.10 billion - a gap of Rs2.10 billion.
A casual glance at the budget shows that there is an operational shortfall of Rs5.44 billion in the revenue budget, Rs2.10 billion on the capital and no indication of resources to finance Rs9 billion development programme. The overall deficit, therefore, is as high as Rs16.54 billion.
The provincial government expects Rs2.76 billion foreign assistance, Rs2.70 billion of the second tranche of BRMP, Rs600 million T.A. loan and hopes to get "unfunded receipts of Rs8 billion" from the federal government. The budget figures however fail to give a picture either of the real resource gap or resource mobilization.
The minister informed the house that the federal government was investing Rs20 billion on development projects to supplement the efforts of the Balochistan government. He was confident that massive investments being made in the mega-projects in the province would go a long way in providing a launching ground for a big development thrust.
He spoke of the allocations being made for higher education, health, water supply, irrigation, improvement of law and order and other areas in the province.
The minister also offered a review of the current fiscal year in which the share of federal funds have increased from the budgeted Rs26.38 billion to Rs29.04 billion because of better tax collection by Islamabad.
But the provincial receipts show a decline from Rs1.62 billion to Rs1.53 billion. The non-development expenditure during 04-05 has come down from Rs28.45 billion to Rs26.20 billion. The development funds utilization was Rs8.34 billion as against the allocated Rs11.34 billion.
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