The PPP led Sindh government is not likely to unveil the fiscal budget for 2009-10 on time due to negligence and ill-planning of the concerned officials, Business Recorder learnt Saturday. According to official sources in the Finance Department, the provincial departments were asked to prepare budget proposals and submit it to he Planning and Development Department for approval.
They said the senior officials at Planning and Development Department had asked the Finance Department to prepare a 16-column budget, as per the pattern set by the Planning Commission of Pakistan.
But, after a few weeks, the Finance Department was again asked to add one more column, raising the columns to 17, they said. Interestingly, after a month later, the officials of the Planning and Development Department had once again written a letter to the Finance Department asking for an addition of another column, increasing the numbers to 18, they added.
The officials further said that the first edition or print of the budget proposals had been prepared on 18-column sheet, which was sent to the Planning and Development Department for approval of various uplift schemes of next year. The meeting of the Inter-Departmental Priority Committee (IDPC) was held from March 24, to 28, 2009 under the chairmanship of the Additional Chief Secretary (Development) to approve the priority programme for inclusion in the ADP, they said.
The sources also said the first edition of the budget proposals was forwarded to the finance department with changes, asking them to finalise it. After passage of 25 days, the Planning and Development Department again asked the finance department on April 25, 2009 to add one more column and prepare the budget on 19-column sheet, which was confusing concerned officials to finalise it.
'We have only a month to complete the job, but the authorities in Planning and Development Department are issuing orders like we are playing a game,' they complained. To a question, they said the meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) was likely to be held in a week or two under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani in Islamabad. The outlay of the budget would be granted in the upcoming meeting after which, a minimum period of one and half month was required to give it a final shape.