www.punjabics.com

Home

 

Lawmakers feel the pinch of financial crunch

* Punjab government allocates only Rs 25m each for coalition lawmakers in upcoming ADP
* Accommodation of 47 unification bloc members also responsible for reduction

By Anwer Hussain Sumra


LAHORE: The Punjab government has reduced the funding for coalition lawmakers in the forthcoming annual development programme (ADP) this year due to the financial crunch facing the government.
The Chief Minister’s Secretariat has informed all coalition parliamentarians they should submit development schemes worth Rs 25 million or less for the upcoming ADP. The current budget, ending June 30, allocated Rs 40 million for each parliamentarian, sources told Daily Times. They said the Rs 15 million cut in discretionary funds had forced parliamentarians to prioritise the development of their constituencies.
The sources said the Finance Department, during a pre-budget meeting, had informed Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif the volume of the upcoming ADP could not exceed Rs 120 billion due to revenue collection shortfall in the province. They said the provincial departments and agencies responsible for collecting revenue from indigenous sources could collect only 60 percent of the targeted Rs 40.36 billion by the end of the third quarter of the current financial year. The CM was also informed the Punjab government’s share from the National Finance Commission would likely be Rs 284 billion, which would only meet the current expenditure calculated at Rs 300 billion.
Additional burden: After assessing the situation, it was decided to cut the development budget of the coalition MPAs. The addition of 47 Unification Bloc members has also forced the government to reduce the individual discretionary funds of its MPAs to facilitate all coalition parliamentarians, sources added.
An MPA, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government usually increased the ADP on an annual basis to fund public welfare related projects, and the cut in spending was surprising. He said the government should curtail the current expenditure (non-development) funds, and promote austerity in government sectors to save money for the ADP. The cut in funding would reduce the number of public welfare schemes and adversely impact the poor, he added.

Daily Times: Thursday, June 04, 2009