KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday said the provincial government would present a supplementary budget in assembly for the next financial year 2018-19.
The chief minister, while speaking to media during the inauguration of the China-Pakistan Skilled and Technical Education International Conference, said that funds for development and non-development sectors would be allocated for the whole financial year in the next budget, but authentication for utilisation would be made only for four months.
He said that there are two parts of the budget. The first part is supplementary which deals with the expenditures of the current financial year. He said the sitting government is responsible to get budget grants approved from the assembly before end of June.
Talking about next budget, the chief minister said that there would be allocation for salaries and other development and non-development expenditures for the entire financial year, but authentication for utilization of the budget would be made only for four months means till September 2018 which would help the next government make any necessary changes.
Replying to a question about the three chief ministers walk out from the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, he said that the federal government wanted to approve the new Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and has played a game with smaller provinces particularly Sindh.
ALSO READ: Three chief ministers walkout of NEC meeting over budget differences
He added the NEC is constitutional body and is bound to advise the provincial and the federal government for a balanced development based on regional equity.
He said the National Highway Authority had been given Rs15 billion schemes for 2018-19 but Sindh was given only Rs4 billion share. Water and irrigation sector had been given Rs27.5 billion in which Sindh had Rs300 million share or 1.1 percent, Higher Education Commission had 22 new schemes of Rs6 billion in which Sindh was given only Rs250 million and similarly, power sector had been given Rs6bn new schemes but Sindh was given only Rs125 million village electrification schemes.
“This shows that they had a plan to deprive smaller provinces in which no balance and equitable share were kept in mind while framing them new PSDP,” he said adding this was the reason why he along with two other chief ministers walked out from the meeting.
Earlier, the chief minister addressing conference said that it would help different technical institutes of the province to work with leading Chinese Institutes as their partners or in their affiliations.
He said that CPEC projects are going to open a floodgate for creating employment opportunities, and therefore, there would be a dire need for skilled staff and specialists run the new projects.
He said that CPEC also demands that the new generation along with English language must learn Chinese so that the communication gap could be filled between the two nations.
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