KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah gave a presentation to Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari here at the CM House about the performance of his government in the province.

Mr Shah said the development sector generated employment opportunities, rotated capital in the economy and created development activities.

He said policymakers always attached priority to the development sector and that depended on the availability of funds after the allocation of operational expenditures of a government such as payment of salaries and utilities.

The briefing was attended by former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and provincial ministers, planning and development chairman and principal secretary to the CM.

CM Murad Ali Shah briefs the PPP chief on his successes

Regarding education, he said the budgetary provisions had been enhanced from Rs120.502 billion in 2013-14 to Rs205.019bn for 2018-19 — a 71 per cent increase.

Mr Shah said the Sindh Education Foundation’s budget was enhanced from Rs2.215bn to Rs9.593bn, while grants in aid for universities were Rs5bn throughout those years. Besides, funds for free registration of students in the boards were increased from Rs1bn to Rs2bn in two years.

About health, he said the budgetary provisions for health sector were enhanced from Rs36.4bn in 2013-14 to Rs99.537bn in 2018-19 — an increase of 174pc.

The grant to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) was enhanced from Rs400m to Rs8.87bn; grants to the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) were enhanced from Rs2bn to Rs5.6bn; grant to PPHI enhanced from Rs2.26bn to Rs5.84bn; grant for Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences was enhanced from Rs500m to Rs2bn, and grant for Abdullah Shah Institute of Medical Sciences enhanced from Rs100m to Rs1.25bn.

About law and order, Mr Shah said the budgetary provisions had been enhanced from Rs54.429bn in 2013-14 to Rs113.640bn in 2018-19 — an increase of 109pc.

Around 48,944 new posts were created in five years in the Sindh police. During the last five years the Special Security Unit had been strengthened with an investment from Rs672.672m to Rs2.175bn and Rs8.785bn were allocated for procurement of arms and ammunition. Besides, 14 special courts (antiterrorism) were created for Rs7.539bn in 2017-18. The human rights department was set up in Sindh and Rs58.094m was allocated in 2017-18.

Similarly, he said, the irrigation department had been given special attention and its budget was increased from Rs14.36bn in 2013-14 to Rs22.74bn for 2018-19.

The budgetary provisions for the energy department for this fiscal year were Rs23.88bn, he said, adding that Rs20bn had been allocated for clearance of liabilities of electricity charges of Hesco and Sepco; Rs3bn is kept for power subsidy for captive power plants; Rs128.12m for grant-in-aid for the Thar Coal Energy Board; Rs100m for grant-in-aid for the Sindh Coal Authority; Rs50m for grant or seed money for the Sindh Energy Holding Company (Pvt) Ltd for onward release to the Sindh Transmission & Dispatch Company (STDC).

About minorities, he said the budget had been increased from Rs175.6m in 2013-14 to Rs848.324m for 2018-l9 — an increase of 383pc.

He also spoke on his government’s performance in the women development, social welfare and public health engineering sectors.

Mr Shah said the allocation for development portfolio of the province had substantially been increased during the last 10 years. “It has grown from Rs89bn in 2008-09 to Rs244bn in 2017-18.”

He added 2,949 development schemes had been completed from July 2008 to June 2017. During the current fiscal year, 714 development schemes would be completed by the end of June.

He said the releases volume had increased up to Rs209bn as against Rs148bn in 2015-16. During 2013-14 the total expenditure was Rs107bn under provincial and district annual development programme, during 2016-17, the provincial government’s development expenditure was Rs194bn as against of Rs109bn of 2013-14.

He gave details about governance reforms, institutional development, improvement in legal and regulatory framework, the Sindh Tax Revenue Mobilisation Plan (STRMP), transparency in budget formulation and execution, capacity development, monitoring of ADP schemes and improvement in legal and regulatory framework.

Mr Shah said tax receipts had increased from Rs91.37bn to Rs185.62bn in three years after the implementation of STRMP.

The Sindh Revenue Board published its quarterly and annual reports to publicly share its performance, he said, adding that the sales tax on services collection had increased from Rs33.67bn to Rs100bn in five years.

The chief minister said the Budget Strategy Paper (BSP) was now a regular feature to make budget formulation process more transparent and participative.

Along with the BSP, the quarterly budget execution reports were published to ensure transparency in the budget execution by providing detailed information on budget allocation (original and revised) and actual expenditure incurred during each quarter.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2018