Sindh presents Rs1.477 trillion budget for 2021/2022

Sindh presents Rs1.477 trillion budget for 2021/2022

KARACHI: Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday presented provincial budget for fiscal year 2021/2022. The total outlay of the budget is Rs1.477 trillion with a deficit of Rs25.7 billion.

The provincial government announced an increase of 20 percent in government employees and 10 percent increase in pension. Besides, minimum wage has been increased to Rs25,000 from Rs17,500.

Murad Ali Shah said that the total budget outlay for financial year 2021-22 has been estimated at Rs.1.477 trillion, as against budget estimate of Rs.1.241 trillion for the outgoing financial year, showing overall increase of 19 percent.

The current expenditure of the province is projected at Rs.1.14 trillion, which includes current revenue expenditure of Rs.1.089 trillion and current capital expenditure of Rs.59.49 billion.

“This is 78 percent of total expenditure of the province and shows an increase of 14 percent over estimates of Rs.1 trillion for last year,” he said.

It is important to highlight here that for the next financial year; the provincial government has tried to align development as well as non-development expenditure priorities in line with the post COVID-19 situation, he added.

The chief minister said that the total receipts of province for Financial Year 2021-22 have been estimated at Rs.1.452 trillion as against budget estimate of Rs.1.22 trillion for CFY, showing overall increase of 19 percent.

Receipts from Federal Government on account of revenue assignment, straight transfers and grants are estimated at Rs.869.68 billion, which constitute 72.5% of total receipts of the province.

It is an increase of 12.6%, over estimates of Rs.760.3 billion last year. However, the budget estimates of straight transfers for next FY have decreased substantially by approximately 20.6% to Rs.49.5 billion from the budget estimates of Rs.62.34 billion of current financial year. Receipts of Federal PSDP are estimated at Rs.5.37 billion. Receipts on account of Foreign Project Assistance (FPA), budgetary support loans and grants are estimated at Rs.71 billion. Receipts from provincial own sources on account of tax and non-tax receipts are estimated at Rs.329.033 billion, which constitute 27.5% of total receipts. This is an increase of 4.8% over estimates of Rs.313.4 billion of CFY.

The development expenditure of the province is estimated at Rs.329.032 billion, which include Rs.222.5 billion for Provincial Annual Development Plan (ADP) and Rs.30 billion for districts ADP, foreign project assistance of Rs.71.16 billion and Rs.5.4 billion from Federal PSDP Grant for schemes being executed by the government of Sindh.

Murad Ali Shah said that in financial year 2021-22, around 1033 schemes have been identified for completion in first and second quarter and maximum resources will be provided for their timely completion.

On-Going schemes with remaining throw-forward up to Rs.100 million have been fully funded for completion by June, 2022. On-Going Schemes where 70 percent expenditure is made have been fully funded for completion by June 2022.

He said that the output of government is directly related to the performance of every individual employee. “All the employees of the provincial government have my gratitude,” he added.

For next financial year we are proposing an increase on 20 percent in the basic salary of all employees. For the welfare of the labor class and in line with increase in pay of government employees, the minimum wage rate is also being increased from Rs.17,500 to Rs.25,000 per month