Sindh ADP slashed by Rs 24 billion to Rs 228 billion

Sindh's Annual Development Plan (ADP) has been slashed by Rs 24 billion to Rs228 billion from Rs252 billion for financial year 2018-19 after facing the shortfall in federal transfers. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah presenting the Sindh budget 2018-10 in provincial assembly for its authorization of remaining three quarters on Monday announced that provincial development portfolio now faces an allocation cut of Rs 24 billion.
Before the departure of the PPP government in Sindh, the provincial government in its budget in May, 2018, put the total development budget outlay for 2018-19 at Rs.343.911 billion. Out of this Rs252.00 billion was estimated for provincial ADP and Rs 30.00 billion for district ADP schemes, Rs46.895 billion from Foreign Projects Assistance (FPA and FERP) and Rs15.017 billion by Federal Government through PSDP schemes under execution of Sindh Government.
The Provincial ADP 2018-19 included Rs202.00 billion for 2226 on-going schemes, and a block allocation of Rs 50.00 billion was estimated for new schemes.
The chief minister in its budget speech disclosed that size of Provincial ADP for 2018-19 has been revised to Rs 228.00 billion out of which Rs 5.00 billion will be diverted to district ADP which will be enhanced from Rs 30.00 billion to Rs 35.00 billion and Rs 21.0 billion will be authorized for new ADP schemes.
"We have taken this unpleasant decision of reducing ADP allocation after facing financial constraints in view of shortfall in federal transfers," Murad stated and added that the provincial government is largely dependent on the federal government for its revenue receipts including revenue assignments, straight transfers and OZT grant, which constitute about 75% of the combined federal receipts and provincial tax and non-tax receipts.
He pointed out that the actual transfers from federal government to Sindh always fall short of the estimates provided during a fiscal year. "With the unpredictability of these fiscal transfers from the federal to provincial government, budget preparation becomes cumbersome as the projections of non-development expenditure and development portfolio are largely based on these estimates," Murad noted.
Resultantly, provincial development expenditure has to be adjusted to offset the effect, he declared and added that during previous financial year 2017-18 the budgeted receipts of federal transfers was Rs.627.3 billion which was revised to Rs. 98.8 billion whereas actually we received only Rs549.9 billion i.e. a shortfall of Rs77.4 billion
Likewise, receipts of federal PSDP were revised to Rs20.385 billion from Rs27.326 billion whereas revised Foreign Project Assistance stood at Rs 27.7 billion as against Rs42.7 billion. Resultantly, we have to cut our development allocation for new schemes from Rs. 50.00 billion to Rs. 26.00 billion, Murad added.
He said that the Sindh Government is giving more emphasis on completion of ongoing schemes, therefore sufficient funds have been allocated for the purpose. He hoped that 958 schemes of current fiscal's ADP where hundred percent remaining funds have been allocated, are likely to be completed by June 2019.