| June 28, 2003 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 27,1424 |
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Lahore district budget
Harry Potter flies high
THE State Bank of Pakistan(SBP) has done well to put the GDP growth rate for the current year in correct form. Terming the 5.1 per cent GDP growth rate as projected by the finance ministry the result of the previous year’s adjustments that altered the base of the fiscal 2002-03 growth, the third quarterly report of the SBP released on Thursday says that the real GDP after adjustment would come down to 4.6 per cent. The government for some reason had not explained this while inflating the growth rate for 2002-03 by as much as half a percentage point. When challenged by independent economists immediately after the announcement of the budgetary estimates for the next year, the finance ministry officials, instead of clearing the confusion as the SBP has done now, had stuck to their position that the projected 5.1 per cent GDP growth rate reflected the real measure of the performance of the economy.
In the first place, fudging economic data for whatever reason — political or otherwise — damages the credibility of the government when the truth becomes known. Secondly, such confusion makes future planning hazardous, leading sometimes to adoption of unrealistic and unachievable economic targets. It is against such a confusing background that the question of how the country could earn 20 per cent more from exports this year when the real growth in agriculture was only 3.4 per cent and not 4.2 per cent and in the manufacturing sector only 5.8 per cent and not 7.7 per cent becomes pertinent and calls for a clarification. The explanation that the increase in export earnings partly reflected a 40 per cent increase in the unit value of some export items sounds unconvincing in view of the fact the prices the world over, especially of those items which we export, had come down sharply during the outgoing year. Also there must be a plausible explanation for a sudden and substantial increase in our exports to the UAE and Saudi Arabia during the outgoing year.
There is no denying the fact that the year 2002-03 has been a relatively good year in terms of economic progress for Pakistan. There has no doubt been better growth all around, but certainly not as much as the government would want people to believe. Indeed, it could not have been so in view of the negligible investment in both private and public sectors. The SBP report is, therefore, correct in noting with concern the lower than budgeted development expenditure during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year. It estimates one full percentage point of GDP shortfall in the public sector investment during the year as a result mainly of a large degree of non-utilization of public sector development programme allocations. In fact, the PSDP expenditure in 2002-03 has been lower than what was spent in this sector during the previous year. One would like, therefore, to agree with the SBP report that a sharp rise in public sector development spending is imperative if the economy is to achieve the level of acceleration and spread of investment required to sustain high growth rates — an essential condition for employment generation and poverty alleviation. There is also considerable merit in the SBP suggestion for close and regular monitoring of all those institutions at the highest policy-making level which lay down mechanisms to ensure that impediments are removed, results are achieved and benefits fully realized
THE 2003-4 budget of the Lahore City District Government presented on Thursday, envisaging a road user charge for vehicles entering the city district, is bound to increase the people’s financial difficulties. Another taxation proposal relates to the planned raise in sanitation fee recovery from the present Rs. 10 million to Rs. 273 million. Recovery of the fee with Wasa bills is to start from next month. The total outlay of the budget is 5,569.81 million compared to Rs. 3.947 billion in 2002-3. As before, in spite of Lahore’s mounting civic uplift needs, non-development expenditure makes a major claim on the budget. An amount of Rs. 4,663.52 million — over 83 per cent of the budget — will be spent on it as against a relatively meagre sum of Rs. 893.105 million or 16 per cent of the budget, earmarked for the annual development programme. Even from this amount a major portion has been allocated for on-going schemes, while only Rs. 391.16 million has been provided for new projects.
The CDG resource constraint seems to have worsened lately because the main sources of revenue, under the new system, have gone to the towns, while the expenses incurred on the bulk of the staff which take up much of the civic body’s earnings have to be borne by the CDG. Crucial financial assistance of Rs. 637 million from the Punjab government, which had helped it out last year, is also expected to be received during the next financial year. For civic uplift, the lion’s share has gone to solid waste management which has received Rs. 217 million followed by roads which have been allocated Rs. 169 million. In the social sector, education and health have been provided Rs. 78 million and Rs. 74 million, respectively. The CDG therefore must take steps to improve its earnings and check waste so as to increase allocations for the social sectors and meet the growing development needs of Lahore.
THE fifth Harry Potter book, ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, has done exceedingly well all over the world — from New York to Kuala Lumpur and from London to New Delhi. Released after a three-year wait — that must have seemed an eternity to diehard Potter fans — the latest offering by J.K. Rowling takes readers into the world of the boy magician, learning the tricks of the magic trade at Hogwarts, the school of wizardry and witchcraft. People in America and Britain lined up for hours outside bookstores with many stores saying that the rush was so intense and those waiting so eager that it was like Christmas Eve shopping. Five million copies were sold in America alone on the first day of release, shattering the record set recently by Hillary Clinton’s ‘Living History’ which sold 600,000 in its first week. In Britain, a record 1.8 million copies were sold, and stocks were reported to have run out in places as afar and diverse as Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi.
And what is it about Harry Potter, this bespectacled boy, that appeals so intensely to so many children, and adults, across cultural, geographical and linguistic barriers? Perhaps our real life world has become so hectic and taxing, our daily routine so monotonous and tiresome that we look for an escape, and find it in the world of make-believe, magic and fantasy. Or, is it that we all like to listen to and read a good story, especially one that narrates a struggle and a battle between good and evil? After all, some of human civilization’s earliest pieces of literary writing which still survive and are read today, were stories and tales of divine beings and the wars that they fought. Take the case of the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’ of the Babylonians some four thousand years ago and one will find a battle between the forces of good and evil, as in Potter’s stories. Whatever the case may be, one hopes that ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ will soon find its way to bookstores in this country.