Punjab budget for the financial year 2009-10, presented at a time when the country is facing the Taliban imbroglio and dithering law and order situation, has become prime concern, manifests the political priorities and the governance agenda of Shahbaz administration. Shahbaz Sharif, who is ruling Punjab for the second time as the Chief Minister, has continued his agenda of public friendly reforms in this budget.
Perhaps, his long arduous struggle against the dictatorship in recent years has a key role in reaffirming his belief in the public welfare and social equality. However, Shahbaz's second stint is rather difficult and perilous than the previous one. This time, war against terror brought multiple miseries and misfortunes for the people and the government has to take extra measures to counter terrorism.
Shahbaz Sharif inherited an over extended development portfolio of ongoing schemes from the previous regime when he took over in 2008. His emphasis, throughout, has been to, first, complete ongoing development schemes with maximum delays and cost escalation and free resources for the new development. Therefore, as a conscious strategy to gain momentum and achieve speedy completion, government did not apply any cut to development expenditures in the new budget.
In this backdrop, it is a satisfying aspect that the government approaches the next financial year with a more realistic but also more challenging budget which does not compromise on key elements of development and social protection but also lays more emphasis on expenditure control, fiscal space creation and improving the collection level of existing taxes by increasing efficiency and expanding the base.
On the social protection side, it is hoped that the social protection programs will move forward but it would be good if the design of some of the programs is changed to make them more target oriented, longer lasting and conditional on performance. It is good that the government has planned to give vocational training to the poor, pilot health insurance and provide micro finance opportunities to enable the underprivileged to move out of lingering poverty.
The biggest source of revenue for the provincial government is its shares from the Federal Divisible Pool of Taxes. For 2009-10, the share of the provinces would be 45% in the Federal Divisible Pool of Taxes. The budgeted current revenue expenditure for 2009-10 is Rs 314,873.085 million as compared to the last year's budgeted figure of Rs 256,948.656 million showing 22.5% increase.
The major reasons for the variance in the budgeted current expenditure, besides annual incremental increase, are as following:
1.The allocation for subsidies has gone up from Rs 17,000 million to Rs 26,700 million in 2009-10.
i. Transfers to local governments have been budgeted at Rs 119,420.388 million for 2009-10 compared Rs 106,482.966 million. In this way, an additional sum of Rs 12,937.422 million has been provided for local governments in Budget 2009-10.
ii. The allocation for Health Sector has increased from Rs 11,024.703 million to Rs 21,771.773 million in 2009-10, showing an increase of 97.4%.
iii. An additional allocation of Rs 8,000 million has been made for higher pay packages of the police.
iv. The expenditure on pension is pitched at Rs 19,000 million in 2009-10 compared to Rs 13,816.083 million in 2008-09.
v. An allocation of Rs 1,000 million has been made for performance incentives to teachers.
vi. Allocation for Punjab Education Foundation has been raised from Rs 3,000 million to Rs 4,000 million in 2009-10.
vii. An additional allocation of Rs 1,000 million has been made for Software Technology Park in Budget 2009-10.
viii. Rs 2,000 million for Green Tractors Scheme to benefit farmers with land holding smaller than 12.5 acres.
ix. Rs 500 million for dialysis/kidney treatment centres in public sector hospitals.
x. Rs 500 million for treatment and vaccination of Livestock owned by the poor.
Punjab government has also decided to expand its pro-poor initiatives to provide maximum relief to the neglected sections. For this, Rs 14,200 million for Food Stamp Scheme have been provided and government intends to shift its focus from cash transfers to permanent rehabilitation of recipient families through vocational training programmes and micro-finance facility.
Likewise, Rs 7,500 million for Sasti Roti programme, Rs 4,000 million for subsidy on wheat, Rs 1,000 million for subsidised buses for strengthening public transport in five mega cities and arranging free transport for the poor students will certainly facilitate them.
The Development Programme 2009-10 has been pitched at Rs 175 billion, which is Rs 20 billion higher than the present budget's revised size. The core programme is Rs 130 billion which is 74.3% of the total development outlay. The allocation for Special Progammes is Rs 42 billion, including District Development Programme, which is worth Rs 12 billion.
The development strategy adopted includes: (i) Realising the demographic dividend through increased investments in education, health-care, skill development and better employment opportunities (ii) Education growth embracing all classes and regions (iii) poverty reduction (iv) maximum employment generation and (v) social sector development (vi) infrastructure development, its rehabilitation and consolidation (vii) productivity and competitiveness of agriculture, livestock and industry (viii) food, water and energy security (ix) women empowerment (x) private sector development and encourage public private partnerships and (xi) result-oriented planning and development.
Shahbaz's reforms agenda seems ambitious but the extent and nature of opportunities and challenges that the province now faces are much larger and different from those in the past. Therefore, he needs to look forward to tackling new problems in a more competitive situation. This is the real test for him. And, I conclude with Allama Iqbal's words!
Nishan yahi hai zamaane main zinda qaumon ka Ke subah shaam badalti hain inki taqdeerain