Development projects paralysed as Centre cuts Sindh share by Rs233b

The coronavirus pandemic has paralysed the development process in Sindh with even the old projects being delayed as the Centre slashed the province’s share by Rs233 billion to make the situation even worse, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.

In the given scenario, preparing the next budget has become a challenge for Sindh which has made it dependent on the revenue collection target for the Centre.

The reason is that the provincial government is finding it difficult to complete the development projects in the current financial year while those launched previously would also be not completed.

So far, only 65 percent of the provincial and district budget has been spent while the provincial government would not be able to utilise the 35 percent of the money.

An amount of Rs228 billion was allocated in the current financial year 2019-20, which was divided into Rs208 billion for the ongoing projects at the provincial level and Rs20 billion for the district development budget.

But the prevailing situation means that including new projects in the next budget is now a challenge for the Sindh government which has stopped utilising the current development allocations for the actual purposes in effort to fight the coronavirus.

That’s why the Sindh government has made preparation of the next budget dependent upon the revenue target fixed by the Centre.

It is because of the fact that a large chunk of revenue target is collected from Karachi.  But the revenue collection from the city could not be achieved amid the pandemic.

Furthermore, the Rs233 billion cut on the part of the Centre has resulted in severe financial crisis for the province.

It is reported that the Sindh government will formulate a strategy on non-development budget in May-end, as the chief minister has not held a single meeting on budget so far.

Same is the case with the provincial secretaries committee, as 25 provincial departments remained closed due to the pandemic.In this emergency situation, the finance department has made the expenses on the pandemic as the sole focus.