KARACHI: Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday said that the provincial fiscal budget 2022-23 proposes “no new taxes”, vowing to achieve a record development in the province.
“A budget of Rs1.71 trillion proposed with no new taxes,” he told a post-budget news conference at the Sindh Assembly auditorium, saying that the fiscal plan rather extends a relief in taxes on cotton fee, professional and entertainment duties.
Tax on IT sector was dropped to 3 percent from 13 percent, he said that the move is aimed to encourage the freelancing in the filed. He told reporters that his government is going to announce a five-year IT policy.
About the non-development schemes, he said that they will not exceed 60 percent, though the budget projects their 70 percent share for next fiscal year.
The non-development schemes also include grants, which he said, remain as a development measure. The grants go to the Sindh Local Government Department stand at Rs85 billion, hospitals at Rs75 billion, education at Rs30 billion and social sector at Rs18 billion.
In addition: 14.5 percent or Rs 174.229 billion employees Retirement Benefits, 12.3 percent or Rs147.449 billion operating expenses and 42.5 percent or 509.732 billion employees related expenses.
“The current revenue expenditures of Rs1.199 trillion could not be termed as non-development expenditures but it has 2.9 percent or Rs35.360 billion repair and maintenance budget which itself is part of development budget,” he said.
Thus, he said, the non-development schemes remain for not more than 60 percent in the budget.
The budget proposes Rs15 billion for social relief, which he said, is aimed to make registry database to make it easy for the government to reach out to the most needy during emergencies.
He said that the Sindh government is seeking investments for the city’s development from the gulf nations mainly Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. An investment conference, he said, has been under consideration to hold for Sindh in Kuwait to attract investors for the metropolis uplift.
The Sindh government is not looking for loans for the province from the Kuwait Investment Authority, he said, rather seeking investments. The city’s development requires about Rs600 billion, which the government cannot spare from its uplift budget that meant for the entire province.
The total development outlay for Karachi in 2022-23 was Rs125 billion, Murad said that Rs80.077 billion has been allocated for 750 Karachi specific projects of which Rs60.686 billion for 483 ongoing schemes and Rs19.390 billion for 267 new schemes.
He said that Rs5 billion was earmarked from District ADP and Rs40.715 billion for seven projects through Foreign Project Assistance including Competitive and Livable City of Karachi Project (Click), Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Project (KNIP), Kara chi Water & Sewerage Services Improvement Project (KWSSIP) Phase-I and Phase-II for Environmental, Social Safeguards and Design Studies, Solid Waste Emergency and Efficiency Program (SWEEP), Construction of BRT Red Line Karachi and Karachi Urban Mobility Project – BRT Yellow Line.
For around 32 mega projects, he said, Rs5 billion reserved for Safe City for [its pilot part will be completed next year], Rs12.19 billion for dual carriageway Manghopir Road to Shahrah-e-Qaddafi, Rs1.6 billion for renovation of Karachi Fish Harbour as Rs309.6 million has already been allocated, Rs1 billion for rehabilitation of storm water drains Phase-II.
Murad acknowledged that the burden of Rs174.229 billion of employees’ retirement benefits is “huge” on the provincial exchequer that should be arrested, saying that the government is evolving a new plan in this regard.
To a question, he replied that his government was preparing a policy to offer registration of electric vehicles free of charges.
He announced that Gambat, a small town of Khairpur District, will be developed as Medical City to begin a medical tourism in the province.
He said that Rs219.787 billion was allocated for the health sector, which includes Rs196.453 billion non-development and Rs23.334 billion development budget.
Nabisar-Vajihar water infrastructure project will be developed for Rs35 billion, he said: “This project has been launched under public private partnership with a Kuwait-state company.”
He said that his government was planning to convene an investment conference in Kuwait to attract more investment.
Earlier, Murad condemned the PTI lawmakers for their noisy protest hampering his budget speech during the Sindh Assembly session. He alleged that the protesting legislators used an unparliamentarily language against the PPP leadership.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022