June 10, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 9, 1424

PESHAWAR, June 9: Provinces have been projected to jointly get over Rs2.9bn on account of general sales tax on services in 2003-04, reflecting an increase of 11 per cent in comparison with the revised budgetary estimates for 2002-03.

According to the documents of federal budget 2003-04, out of the total amount to be transferred to provinces on account of GST on services — a provincial levy collected by the Central Board of Revenue — Punjab has been projected to get the highest chunk of Rs1,686.4m, Sindh Rs697.1m, NWFP Rs406.3m and Balochistan Rs150.2m.

Though the projected amount reflects an 11 per cent increase over the revised estimates of the outgoing financial year, the new projection appears to be Rs111m less than the amount the provinces had initially been projected to get in 2002-03.

The federal government’s initially projected estimates for the 2002-03 had reflected that the provinces would jointly get Rs3,051m on account of GST on services. However, the revised budgetary estimates have reflected that the federating units would jointly get Rs2,646m in the outgoing fiscal.

As per the revised budgetary estimates of the federal government, Punjab would end up with Rs1,518m against the Rs1,766m, Sindh would get Rs627m against Rs710m, NWFP would receive Rs365.6m against Rs413m and Balochistan would get Rs135.2m against the initially projected amount of Rs161m.