LATE but not very late, Sindh has started getting some attention from the planners and decision makers in Islamabad and Karachi who are now making some blue prints for the future development. For long, the development in the province has remained directionless. There are neither reliable statistics nor data on the availability of basic needs, nor a vision of the pattern of growth required to cater to these needs in coming years.
On the basis of crude information, the Sindh planners estimate a need of immediate investment of Rs350 billion in major provincial urban centres-—Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and a few other places—-to construct one million low housing units on 100 square yards plot, augment water supply and improve about 10,000 miles of urban roads.
Construction of one million low cost housing units will involve investment of Rs300 billion, water supply schemes are estimated to cost for more than Rs32 billion and improvement of road network in big and small cities will require more than Rs10 billion.
This how a senior planner of Sindh, Ghulam Sarwar Khero, Additional Chief Secretary Planning and Development department made a presentation on behalf of his province in the recently held session of the Pakistan Development Forum (PDF) at Islamabad. He confessed that lack of city and town specific statistics, and as he put it, the mere availability of the urban population data of the district does not render it possible to clearly establish a particular centre that needs attention.
“Sindh and Balochistan get special attention from president and prime minister in matter of development and allocation of funds’’ reveals a senior bureaucrat of the province who attended a few meeting in Islamabad. Thanks to this attention at the highest level that a beginning has been made to prepare master plans of the big cities.
The city district government of Karachi is preparing a master plan up to 2025 at a cost of Rs200 million. A Greater Karachi Sewerage Master Plan has also been prepared at a cost of Rs107 million. The Hyderabad Master Plan for the period 2006 to 2026 is under preparation. The Town Planning Department has updated the Sukkur Master Plan up to 2020. It was initially prepared in 1991. The department is updating similar plans for 20 secondary cities. These are Nawabshah, Khairpur, Mirpurkhas, Shdadkot, Dadu, Larkana, Thatta, Shikarpur, Badin, Jacobabad and Mithi.
But all these activities are confined to planning. Islamabad and Karachi remain tight fisted as ever when it comes to release of development funds. As compared to three other provinces, Sindh received the lowest amount of development funds in the first half of the current fiscal year. As usual Islamabad delayed the release of funds and the finance department in Karachi took its time.
The President and Prime Minister, on occasions of their different visits to the province, promised special package for Karachi, Hyderabad and the rural areas. There were promises and commitments at the highest level for many infra structure projects in the urban and the rural areas of the province. All these promises have been ignored.
The figures speak for themselves. The Sindh’s total outlay of Annual Development Programme for the current fiscal year is Rs18 billion. During July to December 2004, a sum of Rs6.04 billion was released which was merely 34 per cent of the ADP. Sources in Sindh government now estimate a release of Rs 14 billion by end June next. It means that a part of the ADP will remain incomplete.
The CBR claims to have exceeded tax target but Islamabad took time in release of Sindh’s share in federal taxes and hence the delay in release of funds. Obviously, the cost over run of many of the projects and schemes will warrant more funds in future.
Compare it with Punjab. Against an ADP of Rs43.44 billion, a sum of Rs30.37 billion, almost 70 per cent was released by December. Balochistan”s ADP outlay is Rs8.61 billion against which over Rs5.6 billion or 66 per cent funds were released. The NWFP’s ADP outlay is Rs16.19 billion against which more than Rs7 billion were released.
The annual development programmes of all the four provinces are self- funded. But to a large extent, the provinces still depend on federal transfers. It differs in degrees from province to province. With a big tax base and revenue generating projects, Punjab’s dependence is about 80 per cent on Islamabad. The NWFP and Balochistan depend more than 95 per cent and Sindh about 84 per cent.
As against an expenditure budget of Rs112 billion, Sindh’s own tax base is Rs11 billion. Collection figures of a number of provincial taxes in first nine months are very encouraging and to quote M.A.Jalil, the Sindh government advisor on excise and taxation, a net 50 per cent growth is expected in provincial taxes during the current fiscal year.
But collection of tax on agricultural income remains ridiculously low. It is so low because the Board of Revenue has never given correct figures. The budget documents project collection of Rs 400 million this fiscal year. In the last fiscal year, the target of agricultural tax collection was Rs 700 million against which the collection figure is Rs 240 million.
For last more than five years, when the government is increasing the procurement prices of wheat, cotton and other commodities, the collection of tax from farmers is showing a declining trend.
Sindh is home to the traditional big feudal families who in famine or rains live a lifestyle which is envy of all others. The three land reforms have neither pauperised these feudal families nor weakened their political grip on the province. Whatever little amount of agricultural income tax and other revenues are collected, it is from the small farmers.
Efforts were made in the past and are being planned now also to computerise the land holding records and to carry out a scientific estimation of the crop to find out real agricultural potential of the province. But for apparent reasons, these efforts failed to make much headway.
To improve the tax collection, the Sindh government plans to introduce fuel tax in place of the motor vehicle tax. The motor vehicle tax yields about Rs1.6 billion a year. The provincial government expects to increase this collection to about Rs3 billion and that without any hassles for the motor car owners.
The Sindh budget is an interesting piece of financial engineering. Its current expenditure budget in 04-05 is Rs104.90 billion as against Rs100.68 billion current revenue receipts. It shows an operational shortfall of Rs 4.21 billion. This swells to Rs5.43 billion as current capital budget shows a gap of Rs1.22 billion.
There was a huge gap of Rs11.11 billion in the expenditure budget during 2003-04 which obviously is being carried forward. One wonders as to how an accumulated deficit of over Rs16.5 billion would be met. With this huge deficit, the Sindh government has drawn up a Rs18 billion annual development programme. Even at a conservative estimate, the provincial government needs at least Rs25 billion.
The plausible explanation is that Sindh government gives highly inflated figures on the expenditure side. The ADP is ambitious but is as unrealistic as the current expenditure figures are. Who will check this practice?
LATE but not very late, Sindh has started getting some attention from the planners and decision makers in Islamabad and Karachi who are now making some blue prints for the future development. For long, the development in the province has remained directionless. There are neither reliable statistics nor data on the availability of basic needs, nor a vision of the pattern of growth required to cater to these needs in coming years.
