Former Finance Minister Punjab, Tanvir Ashraf Kaira has said the Punjab government is facing gross financial indiscipline due to faulty schemes. He was addressing a press conference at Lahore Press Club, here on Thursday. Former Labour Minister Punjab, Ashraf Sohna was also present.
Kaira said the Punjab government had presented its first budget as surplus budget in 2008-09 with Rs 7.2 billion cash balance. In June 2009, a budget deficit of Rs 42 billion has been recorded due to programmes like Sasti Roti Scheme, Food Support programme and Sasta Aata (flour) scheme.
He said the PML-N launched these schemes for gaining cheap popularity and benefited its workers by allocating them quotas of tandoors and flour in the province. The Punjab government spent public money mercilessly, he added. On overdraft, he said no government, barring the present one, has availed it over the last 10 years. The accumulative burden of overdraft has become Rs 88 billion, he added.
He said the government contractors are panicked due to fiscal indiscipline, as the Punjab government is not paying any bills. He said the budget deficit has reached to Rs 136 billion this year. Kaira said the federal government has borne a cut of 10 percent in its share in the NFC and handed it over to the provinces but the Punjab government is still under severe financial constraints. He feared that high rate of expenditures would take Punjab province further back. He further said the tax collection in Punjab is 25 percent to the actual target but the PML-N leadership was aggressive in criticising the central government on this front.
He said the PML-N leadership has criticised the central government for annual tax theft of Rs 500 billion. The Punjab government has made no serious effort to improve tax machinery in the province, he deplored. He said the Chief Minister Punjab was more interested in managing affairs of turncoats than brining financial discipline to the province.
He mentioned the development work in PML-Q forward block MPAs is being done on priority basis by the Punjab government. Kaira said the Transparency International has pointed out the departments promoting corruption in Pakistan belong to provinces. He added that the provincial departments in Punjab are involved in corrupt practices. He said almost 50 percent of Annual Development Programme becomes target of corruption in Punjab, as Rs 96 billion out of Punjab ADP of Rs 193 billion is used for corrupt practices.
He said he was not responsible for the wrongdoings of Punjab government during his tenure as Punjab finance minister, because nobody can dare to challenge one-man-show of Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif. Regarding vote of no confidence against Punjab chief minister, he said the PPP was more interested in continuity of the system and would avoid destabilising it. He said the PPP would sit in the opposition in Punjab and stress on practical manifestation of good governance by the government.