June 21, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 05, 1428

QUETTA, June 20: Balochistan Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah will present the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2007-08 in the Balochistan Assembly on Thursday with a record development outlay of more than Rs13 billion.

“The investment for development would focus only on the quick completion of on going schemes,” a source told Dawn, adding that a token amount would be set aside for new schemes.

All hopes were being pinned on expected grants from the federal government and international donors for meeting the huge deficit amount indicated to be within the range of Rs8 to Rs10 billion, the source said.

Since 2007-08 is expected to be an election year, the source said there would be no new taxes or any adjustment in existing taxes in the budget, adding that there would an attractive development programme.

The expected Rs70 billion budget for the next fiscal year would include trading and capital flow dependent almost entirely, to the extent of 90 per cent, on resource flow from the federal government to the province.

Balochistan has managed to increase its small revenue base by more than 100 per cent in the last three years to Rs2.8 billion from Rs1.3 billion.