"We are facing a shortfall on account of federal transfers and during ten months (July-April) of this financial year. Sindh has only received Rs 382 billion as against budgeted receipts of Rs 456 billion. Based on these statistics Sindh will be facing a shortfall of Rs 95 billion at the end of this financial year," he said.
Receipts of the Federal Public Sector Development Programme are revised to Rs 5.9 billion from Rs 12.2 billion. The revised Foreign Project Assistance stands at Rs 23.04 billion. Syed Murad Ali Shah said that Sindh was largely able to achieve its provincial tax receipt targets. The Sindh Revenue Board and the Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department were able to achieve their tax targets. However, non-tax receipts targets were compromised due to fewer land transactions during the current financial year. The provincial tax and non-tax receipts are revised to Rs 159.29 billion against an estimated target of Rs 166.03 billion, he said.
On the expenditure side the budget has been revised from Rs 869.11 billion to Rs 877.59 billion for the current fiscal year. Current expenditure has been revised to Rs 606.96 billion from Rs 572.76 billion. The increase is primarily the result of the outside supplementary budgetary allocation of Rs 25 billion which was made for settlement of longstanding electricity dues.
The chief minister said that the province has undertaken a comprehensive reconciliation exercise of electricity dues, and as a result of his government's efforts only Rs 27 billion were payable against a demand of Rs 55 billion. The development expenditure is revised at Rs 210.5 billion against an estimated allocation of Rs 225 billion. The current financial year recorded the highest utilization of development funds. By the end of the current fiscal year the province will be able to spend 88 percent of the development budget that is 20 percent higher than last fiscal year. "The higher utilization of development budget reflects on our growing capacity and our rational financial management," he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017