CM Murad unveils Sindh budget with an outlay of Rs1.24tr.

KARACHI -- Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday presented a Rs1.24 trillion provincial budget for the year 2020-2021, with a deficit of Rs18.38 billion.

The non-development expenditure was estimated at Rs968.99 billion, development expenditure at Rs232.94 billion and capital expenditure at Rs39.19 billion.

Total revenue for the year has been budgeted at Rs1.08 trillion, to be raised through federal transfers of Rs774.715 billion and provincial revenue of Rs313.391 billion.

On a whole, the Sindh government has allocated Rs23 billion for education, Rs28 billion for health, Rs10 billion for agriculture, and Rs5 billion for the prevention of Covid-19 in FY21.

Education accounts for 25.2pc of the budget.

A significant share of the provincial receipts is to be raised in the form of indirect taxes, budgeted at Rs169.073 billion, which include sales tax, provincial excise duty, stamp duty, motor vehicle taxes etc.

Interestingly, the government has planned to generate Rs49.871 billion through income from property and enterprise, receipts from civil administration, and miscellaneous receipts.

The chief minister stated that there has been no further introduction of the tax in the budget, whereas the increase in non-development expenditure has been restricted to 7pc.

'Due to poor receipts, we had to cut down our development expenditure, which now stands at Rs172.941 billion for the current financial year,' CM Murad stated. 'Many development schemes that could have been completed had been delayed due to the non-availability of funds.'

The CM noted that the austerity measures shown with regard to the non-development budget had given the government an opportunity to spend more on development in this budget.

'During the financial year 2018-19, we had to cut on the operating expenses. The Repair and Maintenance budget of the departments had been substantially reduced from Rs30.8 billion to Rs26.8 billion,' he informed.

'I must reiterate that we were able to control the deficit only because of budgetary cuts as we timely adopted austerity measures. I am thankful to all the departments and offices that continued to serve the people despite financial difficulties.'

The CM explained that the increase in non-development expenditure can be attributed to Covid-19 and the subsequent Social Protection and Economic Sustainability Package of Rs34.2 billion. He added that this would inject Rs19 billion in the health sector and Rs22.9 billion in the...