The Punjab budget

The Punjab Finance Minister, Husnain Bahadur Dareshak, presented a surplus, development-oriented budget of Rs 224.40 billion in the provincial assembly on Thursday. The total budgetary outlay is higher than that of the current fiscal by Rs 42.58 billion. Rs 131.11 billion of the money is to come from the Federal Divisible Pool, Rs 30.20 from Federal grants, Rs 4.193 from straight transfers, and Rs 25.77 billion from provincial tax revenues and another Rs 33.124 billion from non-tax revenue sources.
An important feature of the Finance Bill is the size of its Annual Development Programme (ADP). Rs 58 billion have been reserved for this sector, which is 54 percent higher than the original budgetary estimates of the outgoing fiscal year
The over-all development outlay for the province is a little over than Rs 71 billion, which comes to 45 percent of the province's total revenue expenditure. Out of an aggregate sum of 90 billion earmarked for the local bodies, Rs 10 billion are meant for development projects, and 86 percent of the total ADP allocations is to be spent on the ongoing schemes and the rest on new ones. This indicates the government's resolve to complete the old projects rather than succumb to the lure of fresh schemes having new propaganda value
Unfortunately, however, some of its enthusiasm for education seems to have waned. The Punjab government has set aside Rs 9.5 billion for education, making an insignificant increase of only about 11.8 percent on last year's allocation. It offers an even greater disappointment in the field of basic education, something for which it has, for a while, come to be seen as a sort of trend-setter by the other provinces. School education funds have been cut drastically, and brought down from the previous ADP's Rs 6,928.5 million to Rs 2000 million only
This apparently has been done to create funds for other requirements in the area such as education sector reforms, for which expenditure has been upped from zero to Rs 5000 million, and the sports budget that too has gone up from zero to Rs 200 million. No doubt, these areas deserve attention, but it should not have come at the expense of school education - a fundamental requirement for the progress and development of society.
It is good to note, however, that the new allocation of Rs 500 million to the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) is 134 percent higher than that for the outgoing year. And the allocation to the IT education has also been almost doubled with an allocation of Rs 250 million.
Another area that is to receive additional, much deserved spending is environment. Rs 475 million have been earmarked for addressing different problems related to air, land and water pollution. And of course, a particularly praiseworthy aspect of the ADP is a proposed increase in funds for the health sector
It is to go up from last year's Rs 2 billion to Rs 3.3 billion. The money is to be utilised, in addition to the upkeep of existing facilities, to promote the government's Health Sector Reforms Programme through 37 new schemes with a special emphasis on preventive health care services.
Unsurprisingly, the government has also paid adequate attention to the water and power sector. Rs 7 billion, have been earmarked for various projects in the field.
The Punjab budget has levied no new taxes, in fact, it has announced special relief for the small businesses, abolishing sales tax on marriage halls, beauty parlours, health clubs, and laundries. Notably, before the announcement of the budget, rumours were rife that the provincial government would raise stamp duty on property transactions. That, to the relief of real estate speculators, has not happened
This was required not to increase its revenue collection, but to discourage speculative activity in the real estate sector that has pushed residential land prices out of the reach of ordinary people.