KARACHI, June 1: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has said that Sindh's new fiscal budget will be a tax-free surplus budget with highest allocations for the development sector.
He was addressing a pre-budget high level meeting at the Chief Minister House here on Thursday.
The meeting was attended by Senior Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed, Provincial Ministers Shoaib Ahmed Bukhari, Pir Sadruddin Shah Rashdi, Irfanullah Khan Marwat, Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani, Sardar Nadir Akmal Leghari, Dr Hamida Khuhro, Adviser on Finance M.A. Jalil, Chief Secretary Fazlur Rehman, ACS Development Ghulam Sarwar Khehro, Senior Member of BOR Syed Anwar Haider and other senior officials.
The chief minister pointed out that during fiscal 2004-05, the development outlay was Rs20.805 billion which was higher by Rs14.731 billion while during 2005-06 Rs24 billion was earmarked for the purpose besides Rs4.75 billion of the Foreign Project Assistance.
He said as a result of regularity and special monitoring of development activities, there had been improvement in the utilization of funds and physical progress.
He said that as against Rs9.25 billion spent during 2003-04, Rs13 billion was spent in 2004-05 while Rs20 billion is estimated to be spent during the current fiscal.
The chief minister said that for ADP 2004-05 and 2005-06, the funds were provided by the Sindh government out of its own resources.
He said the size of 2004-05 ADP was 60 percent higher than 2003-04 ADP while that of 2005-06 was higher by 34 per cent than the 2004-05 ADP.
Dr Arbab said that special attention would be paid on the development of health and education sectors in the new financial year.
Chief Minister Dr Arbab said that Sindh's economy was on the path of development and assured that funds earmarked for the Annual Development Programme would be released immediately so that the ongoing development process in the province was further geared up. He declared that the loan acquired from the Federal Government would be returned with interest.
Citing examples of development activities in the province, the chief minister said that so far 6,000 kilometres of roads had been built, which did not find a parallel in the past.
He said special funds would be allocated for the provision of medicines for government hospitals to ensure better medical facilities there.
In the new financial year, he said, the condition of district hospitals would be improved to help the local people in their respective districts while in the civil hospitals, emergency wards would be improved with the provision of better facilities.
The chief minister said on the directive of the Federal Government the salaries of primary teachers would be raised in all the provinces while all government employees would be given 10 per cent dearness allowance.
The chief minister said that at present Sindh was getting a revenue of Rs35 billion from oil and gas while the province was meeting the country's 72 per cent gas requirement. He said the province expected enhanced revenues during the new fiscal.
He told the meeting that all canals and water courses would be lined during the new financial year and desilting of 200 canals out of 333 would be carried out.
He said an inspection unit would be established in the Board of Revenue to preserve the record of government land on which Rs14 million would be spent. He said the record of all the departments would be preserved in the Sindh Archives.
Dr Arbab Rahim further stated that Sindh's goths would be regularised and would be provided with the maximum facilities under the Sindh Rural Development Scheme.
He referred to plans for preserving buildings of archaeological importance and heritage and said government barracks would be demolished to construct government offices.
He said two old buildings, the Napier Barracks and Free Mason Lodge, would be preserved.
The chief minister said that nature had blessed Sindh with immense natural resources and it had the world's best granite reserves. He said work was going on on 39 mineral schemes.
He disclosed that an airport would be built in Tharparkar and small dams would be constructed in the province to store water for supply to arid areas.
According to him six new schemes would be started in the agriculture sector while three cold storages and three new sabzi mandis would be constructed besides increased allocations for agriculture research. He called for research on banana, wheat and sugarcane.
He stated that cattle colonies would be developed in every district, the coastal areas of Karachi developed and fishermen would be provided with loans. He said schemes of water supply and sewerage for cities and villages would be launched to provide maximum relief to people.—APP
KARACHI, June 1: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has said that Sindh's new fiscal budget will be a tax-free surplus budget with highest allocations for the development sector.
