Sindh Budget: A typical PPP budget.

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah who also holds the portfolio of the finance minister in Sindh presented a typical PPP budget last week, high on promises to shield the people of the province from the vagaries of hard economic times.

There is nothing in the budget that suggests any resolve on the part of the ruling party to unlock the development potential of the province by extending the industrial base to smaller towns for employment generation and better harnessing the resource base, curbing market distortions for competition that promotes innovation and efficiency or expanding the tax base to net agriculture income.

Similarly, reforming the government framework to check resource slippages, improving the system of economic data collection for better insight into the provincial economy to identify triggers and barriers to development, putting in place structures to improve the government's capacity and improving the effectiveness of resource deployment, are off the agenda as well.

Presumably happy with himself and his party, Chief Minister Shah saw no compulsion to deviate from the beaten path that has landed Sindh where it is today - behind Punjab by a distance that has increased under his rule while the people of Sindh continue to wait for the promised want-free future. There might be some improvement in the quality of life in Sindh over time but people deserve better, especially when the post-National Finance Commission federal resource transfers to Sindh multiplied many folds.

The provincial government continues to walk on the beaten path that has landed it firmly far behind Punjab

The 1.7 trillion tax-free deficit Sindh budget gives a generous increase in salaries and a 5 per cent increase in pension of provincial employees, raises education and health allocations significantly, promising an extension in its social security net. Probably keeping the next general elections in sight, the funds for Karachi (neglected for long) have been doubled to Rs118 billion.

The total revenue receipts in the budget are projected at Rs1.7tr posting a deficit of Rs33.8bn. The province will raise barely Rs374bn from provincial taxes against Rs1.05tr federal transfers and the rest is projected to be raised from provincial non-tax and current capital receipts, federal grants and foreign assistance.

Sindh was ahead of other provinces in terms of percentage allocations to education, health and social security for the last few years. By allocating almost...

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