QUETTA, June 23: Balochistan Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah has shown inclination to Sindh’s proposal to make personal income tax one of the criteria for distribution of resources among provinces under the next National Finance Commission award. However, he firmly rejected the proposal to make revenue collection one of the criteria for resources distribution.
Assisted by Provincial Additional Chief Secretary Maj (retd) Nadir and Finance Secretary Mahfooz Khan, the minister was speaking at his post-budget press conference at a local hotel on Thursday.
He blamed the Sindh government for backing out of a proposal made by it on distribution of gas development surcharge and said: “We have conveyed our position on the GDS issue to President Gen Pervez Musharraf and are confident that his verdict on the resource distribution issue will be accepted by provinces.”
He argued that Balochistan’s proposal of inverse population density ratio had sound rationale and should be made one of the criteria. “Delivery of service in Balochistan is expensive than other provinces because of its size,” he said.
Answering a question, Mr Shah said that he expected his province to gain at least Rs8 billion more from the NFC award. He expressed the hope that NFC award may be declared any time in the current fiscal year and the additional amount of Rs8 billion plus savings on the expenditure would help meet the budgetary deficit and finance the development programme.
He said that the Balochistan government had decided to offer state-owned farms spread over thousands of acres for corporate farming that would bring income and generate employment.
Mr Shah said that the projects of a Balochistan bank and Balochistan TV channel, proposed in the 2004-05 budget, could not be implemented and were now being proposed to be taken up next fiscal year.
Answering another question, he said that private sector would help in the establishment and operation of the bank and launching of the TV channel.
He regretted that youth in Balochistan did not get enough job opportunities in the state-controlled corporations. He estimated capital base of the corporations at Rs50 billion and said: “Even if five per cent of the amount is spent in Balochistan, there can be a greater economic activity and job generation.”
The minister conceded that there were ghost employees in the provincial government departments “because young doctors and other professionals do not want to serve in rural areas.”
But he was happy that Balochistan had received due attention from Islamabad in five years. In 2005-06, he said, 13 per cent of the country’s public sector development fund was being invested in Balochistan and a considerable amount had been spent there in the preceding four years.
Answering yet another question, he said that 91 per cent of the development fund of the fiscal year 2004-05 had been released and bulk of it had been utilised.
He said four provinces had made a unanimous plea to the federal government to provide them relief in debt servicing by way of write off or reduction of interest rates of the expensive loans or allowing them to swap the loans with loans to be raised from the market.
Later, the finance secretary elaborated that criteria for selecting private partners in the corporate farming project were being worked out.
He said that there were 35 state-owned farms and as many livestock farms which the government wanted to offer to private sector on partnership basis.