Syed Murad Ali Shah promises to extend full assistance to the federal govt to achieve the 3.6% growth rate
KARACHI, June 15 (SABAH): Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday said next fiscal year budget for the province had been made amid a difficult period and promised to extend full assistance to the federal government to achieve the 3.6 percent growth rate.
As Sindh opted for a 30pc wage hike for the lower ranking government employees, the chief minister said he wasn’t satisfied with minimum wage of Rs 37,000 – an obvious reference to the record high and persistent inflation that has shrunk the purchasing power of ordinary people at an alarming rate.
Addressing a post-budget press conference in Karachi, Syed Murad Ali Shah said the total budget size of Rs3,056 billion was 34 percent more than the previous one, thus continuing with the tradition of increasing the amount each year. “We will go towards further growth in the next year,” he added.
The chief minister told reporters that the Sindh government was expecting an inflow of Rs1,900 billion from the Centre – an amount calculated according to the province’s share under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.
About the future development strategy, Syed Murad Ali Shah said they would focus on completing the ongoing schemes, as his cabinet had already decided not to launch new ones.
He noted that the caretaker setup had halted work on new schemes, including those designed for the victims of historic floods that hit the country in 2022.
The chief minister claimed that Sindh’s development budget was more than any other federating unit and that they could have easily added new schemes worth Rs500 billion.
“We are in government neither for the first time nor going for the last stint. We believe in long-term planning.”
Syed Murad Ali Shah said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had talked about providing free electricity [for those consuming up to 300 units per month] and added that the budget contained provision of solar panels as part of the plan to start supplying free power.
On the occasion, he assured the audience that citizens in every district of Sindh would have access to clean drinking water, adding that the disabled people would have separate hospitals and parks.
On the issue of revenue generation, the CM said that the Sindh Revenue Board’s target for the next fiscal year will be Rs350 billion.
On a question alleging that no work is done in Sindh without corruption and “commission”, Shah said problems are everywhere.
“The people [of this province] do not agree with you [as] they have elected us [in polls],” he said.
Speaking on the issue of water security, the chief minister said that the federal government has allocated less budget for connecting Keenjhar Lake to the K-IV project.
“The federal government has allocated Rs25 billion for the K-IV project [whereas] the Sindh government will spend Rs170 billion of its own,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has promised that the disbursement of the concerned amount will be approved by June 17.