QUETTA: Provincial Finance Minister Mir Zahoor Ahmed Buledi has said that despite facing a revenue shortfall, the Balochistan government has presented a “tax-free” budget for the next financial year and no area has been ignored with regard to development projects, including constituencies of opposition parties.

Speaking at a post-budget press conference along with Finance Secretary Noor-ul-Haq Baloch and Additional Chief Secretary for Planning and Development Abdul Rehman Buzdar on Thursday, Mr Buledi said the provincial government would implement its plans for increasing revenues to bridge the gap of Rs47.70 billion between revenue receipts and expenditures.

He said the government would also reduce its non-development expenditures and invest in sectors which would generate maximum revenue for the province. The finance secretary said the government had proposed no new tax in the finance bill, but would make some changes in the existing rates of some taxes to increase the revenue of the provincial government.

Mr Baloch said that in the current PSPD of Rs88 billion, the deficit was Rs60.1 billion and the government had only Rs17-18 billion for development programmes.

However, by taking special steps the government would provide around Rs43 billion for development schemes, he said.

He said that for a long time the Balochistan governments had been presenting deficit budgets.

While terming the next year’s budget people-friendly, Mr Buledi said it had not been prepared just by sitting in a room, adding that all stakeholders had been consulted before finalising budget proposals.

The next financial year’s budget is estimated to be of Rs419 billion with a deficit of Rs47.7 billion.

He said that opposition members without even studying the PSDP and other documents, started protesting in the assembly during the budget speech.

“I am confident that after reading the budget copies, they would feel sorry about what they did during the budget session, because opposing this budget is tantamount to opposing the development and infrastructure of entire Balochistan,” Mr Buledi said.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2019