MUZAFFARABAD: Finance Minister Raja Nisar Ahmed Khan on Friday presented Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Rs47.332 billion tax-free budget for 2010-11, which carries a deficit of Rs17.5 billion.
The budget proposed Rs36.157 billion for non-developmental expenditures and Rs11.174 billion for developmental activities.
The central government has so far pledged a mere Rs6.174 billion for development activities, including a foreign aid component of Rs658 million.
The AJK hopes to generate Rs11.672 billion from its internal resources, Rs750 million from water user charges of Mangla, Rs4.5 billion as its 80 per cent share in taxes generated by the AJK Council from the AJK territory, Rs6.68 billion as share in federal taxes and the deficit between income and recurring expenditures to the tune of Rs12.555 billion for non-development activities would be met by the central government.
Earlier, as Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir gave floor to the finance minister to deliver his budget speech, an opposition lawmaker stood on a point of order and accused the government of ignoring the opposition during preparation of the fiscal document.
The opposition lawmakers kept on chanting noisy slogans amid desk thumping for about 10 minutes and then staged a walkout.
The finance minister acknowledged that provinces had faced cuts in their budgets on account of the central government’s financial constraints, but the AJK had never been subjected to cuts. Instead, its budget had always been increased by at least 10 to 15 per cent, Raja Nisar added.
“However, this time round we have faced a different situation, possibly because of reduced share of federal government in the national cake under the new NFC award,” he said.
“This house is not oblivious to problems and challenges we are coping with but nevertheless we are getting along. However, if we are given our share in net hydel profit, federal taxes, Jammu Kashmir State property and other income resources, we may not be in need of grant-in-aid and our government is sincerely struggling to get these rights,” the minister said.
He said that Islamabad had earmarked Rs10.752 billion for AJK’s development budget for the current year through ‘block allocation’ and apart from that Rs6.493 billion had been separately allocated for AJK in the federal PSDP.
However, in a sharp departure from past practices, ‘block allocation’ and share in the federal PSDP had been merged into each other after reduction by 34 per cent and 62 per cent, respectively. Notwithstanding the cut, the last instalment of ‘block allocation’ to the tune of Rs1.815 billion was yet to be released, he said. Furthermore, a special grant of Rs245 million announced by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for AJK lawmakers had also been deducted from the ‘block allocation,’ he added.Practically, the minister said, Rs4.71 billion had been released as ‘block allocation’ in the current year which had badly affected the entire development programme.
Regarding the next year’s block allocation, he said that although the Annual Plan Coordination Committee had agreed to provide Rs7.55 billion, the National Economic Council (NEC) scaled it down to Rs 6.174 billion.
“The President, Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Pakistan have assured that they would provide more funds for AJK’s annual development programme; we are however left with no choice but to propose Rs 11.174 billion as the volume of our next ADP which includes a deficit of Rs 5 billion,” he said.
Regarding the non-developmental budget, he said the AJK government required Rs 35 billion for the current year but the federal finance division had agreed for Rs 29 billion which was far less than AJK’s needs.
Listing the raise given by the federal government in salaries and allowances of serving and retired employees as well as police personnel and judicial officers, the minister said AJK needed at least Rs 7 billion more to meet these expenditures. The deficit of the non-developmental expenditures would therefore rise to 12.555 billion from the existing Rs 5.555 billion which will have to be picked by the central government, he added.
Of the development budget, he asserted that special emphasis had been laid on communication, local government, education, health, hydropower generation and tourism sectors. However, as the development budget also faced deficit, actual allocations (given in brackets below) were less than the ones proposed by the minister.
Giving details, the minister said Rs 4185.343 million had been proposed for transport and communications (actual allocation Rs 2119.189 m), Rs 1500 m for power sector (Rs 725.119 m); Rs 1000 m for local government and rural development sector (Rs 522.644 m); Rs 916.487 m for foreign funded projects; Rs 828.811 m for education sector (Rs 402.720 m); Rs 766.16 m for physical planning and housing (Rs 423.358 m), Rs 361.38 m for forestry/fisheries and wildlife (Rs 199.688 m); Rs 308.147 m for health sector (Rs 170.273 m), Rs 228.132 for information technology (Rs 126.059 m); Rs 196.587 m for tourism (Rs 81 m); Rs 171.924 m for sports (Rs 95 m); Rs 171.607 m for development authorities (Rs 94.825 m); Rs 165.548 for industries and mineral (Rs 91.477 m); Rs 149.394 m for agriculture and livestock (Rs 82.551 m); Rs 110.369 m for research and development (Rs 60.987 m); Rs 40.377 m for civil defence (Rs 22.311 m); Rs 34.321 m for social welfare (Rs 18.965 m); Rs 20.189 for information and media development (11.156 m); Rs 20.189 m for environment (11.156 m).
Earlier AJK cabinet approved the budget at its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider.
Ends
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