BUDGET SPEECH Honourable Mr
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BUDGET SPEECH Honourable Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to Almighty Allah & people of Sindh for having bestowed upon me the honour and privilege to stand before this Honourable house and to present this first peoples Budget, after 2013 election, in which we have tried to provide relief inspite of financial constraints, keeping in view the vision of our leaders Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. Mr. Speaker, We all are here to serve a purpose. Let me put it in the words of my mentor and architect of our democracy, Quaid-e Awam, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto that ‘…power must pass to people or everything will perish’. Our sole purpose is to empower the people who have reposed their trust in this house, in this system. Let me remind you all that this house stands because of the sacrifices made by our leaders, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and the sacrifices made by the workers of Pakistan Peoples Party and people of Sindh. We are here to ensure that voice of people gets heard so that democracy sustains, so that people can live their lives in accordance with their beliefs, so that this land can flourish and develop. As a humbler worker of Pakistan Peoples Party, I am highly honoured to have been re-elected. I am thankful to the people of Sindh for reposing confidence in Pakistan Peoples Party and its leadership. By re-electing our Government, people have preferred continuity. People have preferred our policies and contribution we made during last five years to the promises of our opponents. But above all our victory is due to the great sacrifice of our leader Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. She lives in the hearts of people and will always be a major source of inspiration for us. Mr. Speaker, We have been re-elected on the basis of our performance during the last tenure of this peoples house and I want to assure this house and my people that we will not let the sacrifices of our great leaders and people go in vain. Sindh will prosper and so will Pakistan. I take this opportunity to welcome the mandate given to Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) at the Federal level. It is our desire 1 to work in close coordination with the Federal Government in the larger interest of the people of Pakistan. We expect that the Federal Government would support us in all our endeavors. Mr. Speaker, We have created history under the guidance of President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari we have seen peaceful evolution of our nascent democracy; a peaceful transition of power from one elected government to another elected government for the first time in the history of this country. Through this process, we have strengthened democratic institutions and we have strengthened the people of Pakistan. Budget making is always a daunting task especially when the global economy is suffering from years of recession and uncertainty, and when there are serious resource constraints. But we, by authoring this document, have tried to give people of this province relief and opportunity, which they expect from us. It is always a challenge to broaden the agenda of development in a manner that no individual, community or region is denied the benefits of the development process. Our guiding principle is the service to the people regardless of their community, ethnicity, sect and religion. All the government institutions will be judged on their performance; they must strive to ensure quality public service. The focus of this budget is the optimal utilization of the resources to achieve our objectives of socio-economic development. To continue our march to progress, we have made a historically high allocation of Rs. 185 billion for our Annual Development Program. This reflects our resolve to bring significant improvement in the life of common man by investing in seven major priorities of this government which are highlighted below: 1. Our top most priority is to provide security and improve law & order situation in the province, and we will make necessary investment to achieve this objective. 2. Investment to create more employment opportunities and poverty alleviation initiatives. 3. Investment to provide better quality of education. 4. Investment to provide better health care, especially to the poor. 2 5. Investment in Energy 6. Investment in agriculture, as majority of the people of the province are dependant on this sector. 7. Investment in Karachi Circular Railways to address the transport problems of this mega city. Mr. Speaker, Let me present the revised estimates for current financial year and the budget estimates for the next financial year. REVISED ESTIMATES 2012-13 The Revised Estimates of Receipts from Federal Divisible Pool are Rs. 269.6 billion as against Budget Estimates of Rs.314.4 billion. Revised Estimates of Straight Transfers are Rs.56.2 billion as against Budget Estimates of Rs.59.3 billion. The Grant to offset losses of abolition of OZT of Rs. 8.3 billion is revised to Rs.7.2 billion. The total Federal receipts for the outgoing year are estimated at Rs. 333.0 billion against the budgetary allocation of Rs. 381.91 billion. As against the Budget Estimates of Rs. 96.6 billion, Provincial Tax and Non-tax Receipts are revised to Rs. 100.7 billion, indicating 19 per cent increase from revised estimates for last FY. This includes GST on Services (Provincial) and Advances from Social Relief Fund. The Current Revenue Expenditure for 2012-13 has been revised upward at Rs.342.1 billion as against Budget Estimates of Rs.315.3 billion. The increase is mainly due to increase in employee related expenditure. The revised estimates for provincial ADP is Rs. 97.5 billion against the budgetary estimate of Rs. 181 billion. This significant downward revision is on account of huge shortfall in federal transfers during current year. BUDGET ESTIMATES 2013-14 Estimated Revenue Receipts from Federal Divisible Pool for Financial Year 2013-14 are Rs. 332.9 billion, which is a 5.9 per cent increase over Budget Estimates of 2012-13. Receipts under Straight Transfers are estimated at Rs.67.1 billion, which is higher than last year’s Budget Estimates of Rs.59.3 billion. Provincial own receipts are estimated at Rs.120.2 billion. The estimates for Provincial own 3 receipts include collection of Sales Tax on Services (Provincial) of Rs.42.0 billion. The Current Revenue Expenditure for Financial Year 2013-14 is estimated at Rs.355.9 billion, which is 4.1 per cent increase over the Revised Estimates of Rs.342.1 billion for FY 2011-13. The focus of this budget is the optimal utilization of the resources to achieve our objectives of socio-economic development. To continue our march to progress, we have made a historically high allocation of Rs. 185 billion for our Annual Development Program. This reflects our resolve to bring significant improvement in the life of common man by investing in Health, Education, Infrastructure and Human Resource Development. Mr Speaker, I am glad to announce here a raise in the salary of Government employees. The Government of Pakistan Peoples Party has always taken pride in providing relief to poor and fixed income groups and we will continue to do that. I announce a raise of 10% in basic salaries of all Government of Sindh employees and a similar raise in pensions. The minimum pension has been increased from Rs. 3000 per month to Rs. 5000 per month. LAW AND ORDER Mr. Speaker, We are being challenged by miscreants and terrorists who are trying to destroy the peace and tranquility of our province. But I assure you that they will never be successful, as we stand united and firm against them. We are determined and our resolve is unwavering that we will not give way to these terrorists. I salute the citizens who were martyred. I salute the personnel of Rangers and Police who have given their precious lives to protect us. I salute them for their sincere efforts to bring peace to this land. We all know there can never be prosperity without peace. During the concluding financial year we strengthened police department by procuring APCs worth 1.242 billion. Similarly, an amount of Rs. 2.79 billion was spent to strengthen the law enforcement agencies, which includes provisioning of GSM locator facility for police. We never forgot the sacrifices of our jawans and 4 people who have embraced martyrdom. Rs. 400 million were humbly contributed as compensation for the victim families. The law & order budget for the next financial year stands at Rs. 48.63 billion making it the second largest sector after Education. 10,000 new posts have been created to address the shortage of police personnel in the province. We are trying to mobilize additional resources through new fiscal measures which will enable us to increase the number of new posts for Police to 20,000. The staff recruited against these posts will be given high quality rigorous training to turn them into a strong and professional work force. This trained work force is expected to give us better results in combating organized crime. In recent years we have achieved some success in detecting crimes and foiling criminal attempts by embracing new technologies to improve surveillance. To further strengthen our systems in Karachi Rs. 400 million have been reserved for purchase and installation of surveillance cameras. Also, in an effort to control the proliferation of illegal arms we have introduced Computerized Arms Licensing System, Rs. 16.50 million have been earmarked for the project in next Financial Year 2013-14.