Large bill boards have been placed near the Parliament and advertisements have also appeared in newspapers inviting public input for the next year's budget days from now. Some see it as a campaign to induce people to create an impression that public opinion matters for the present set up and vote for them in the next election.
Political circles speak of a prevailing opinion found among a large section of the public that the notice has come too late for financial managers to include new proposals.
Besides, the public remembers well that when prices go up every year during Ramadan, they never come down but stabilise at the same level.
A HOUSEWIFE RECENTLY WENT TO THE FRIDAY BAZAAR AND FOUND SOME OF THE ITEMS OF DAILY USE AT THE FOLLOWING RATES:
Tomatoes selling at Rs34, per Kg, lemon Rs18 per 25 ounce, pumpkins at Rs10, otatoes at Rs 45, and onions at Rs 52 per five Kg and onions at Rs 46 per five Kg, and remarked that prices had already gone sky high, what, then, is left in the budget to offer?
A phone caller recently told the Prime Minister's Special Assistant on a TV channel to have some pity for the common man because prices had gone beyond reach and his life has become unbearable.
For the housewife and the telephone caller, the attempt to elicit his input in the budget formulation had come too late and in fact meaningless.
These days we hear about 'fresh facts' regarding the next year's budget from the Prime Minister, ministers, down to his financial managers. At the same time, Shamshad Akhtar, the state bank governor, has been complaining of inflation due to the unbridled activities of commercial banks, and if that was not checked, the 7 or 8 per cent inflation (food inflation above 16 percent) would further rise the next year.
Thanks to the Prime Minister, we know that the financial health of the nation is fine with $6 billion of foreign investment, $13.8 billion foreign exchange reserves, the expected rate of growth next year at 7.2 and per capita income reaching $1000.
($1000= Rs60,000 a year. That works out to an average monthly income of Rs5000 per individual to fend for a family of at least seven persons at a time when the prices of flour and pulses have gone sky-high.
A few years ago, economists working on the subsistence level and the families below the poverty line, discovered that an average person needs food of over Rs375 a month. Rent, clothing, power, gas, medicine transport, schooling were left aside. Then how much a family of seven with one earning member needs to have an average lifestyle, even without any recreation. Will Rs5,000 a month be enough?
That is a question a common man will ask before he ventures to give his input on the budget. Leaving that aside, normal parliamentary practice and legislative norms require that policy statements be made on the floor of the House, so that it may not be construed as an attempt to by- pass the legislature in decision-making. Decision is the preserve of the Parliament alone.
We have to reflect on a story published in newspapers on May 29 with Peshawar date line quoting a NWFP Member saying that although Constitution gives authority to legislatures in the preparation and approval of the annual budget practically it is not playing that role in the budget making. So if lawmakers were ignorant of the intricacies of budget procedures, who else would be expected to be more knowledgeable about procedures?
Legislators know that the budget has to respond to the needs of the citizens in the direction of the policy statement of the executive but the legislature has to prove it.
In fact Members of Parliament receive a set of documents including the Budget Statement, containing summary of receipts and expenditure, statement of tax revenues, explanatory memorandum on federal receipts, estimates of foreign assistance, details of demands of grants and appropriations.
A pity the lawmakers have to approve the budget because the law says that only legislators can authorise public spending. Now if the legislators lack knowledge in reading the budget document or were ignorant of procedures for passing the budget, who else would be more knowledgeable about the intricacies of budget?
An attempt has been made here to pass on relevant information about what legislators try to see in the national or provincial budget.
A national (or provincial) Budget document is a key activity in parliamentary democracy to make democratic choices in approving the budget. In fact, a budget is a policy process not for one year but for several years ahead, because during the general debate on the budget the legislature is giving information to assist the government in preparing for the next year's budget.
Legislators are expected to have an opportunity during the debate to contribute to establishing aggregate spending ceilings for each government activity in consideration of a department's capacity to spend.
In the present budget government departments may have an expenditure estimate, about 10 per cent higher than the last year's figure, though some departments might have surrendered large amounts before the last week of May because they did not have the capacity to spend the full amount.
In some cases the money may not have been released until a few weeks ago and therefore, could not spend the allocated amount by June 30, which leads to wasteful expenditure, on the purchase of sundry materials.
For example, after reading the minutes of meeting of the recent Senate Standing Committee on Education, we came to know that development budget of a number of educational institutions had not been released even until May, 2007.
Allocation of resources to Provinces: Legislators have to see very hard the distribution of resources between the federation and the provinces, in terms of Article 60 of the Constitution, whether in the distribution of revenues the provincial government has been assigned due share equal to the percentage of net proceeds of income taxes, customs, sales, federal excise, and contributions under Companies Profits, federal Travel Tax, Petroleum development levy, and surcharge on natural gas.