LAHORE – The Punjab government resorted to revising its budget estimates for the fiscal year 2017-18, instead of presenting a full-year budget, on Monday.
The Punjab cabinet had earlier approved the revision of estimates in a meeting presided over by the Chief Minister, Shehbaz Sharif.
The meeting also approved revised annual development programme 2017-18, along with the minutes of the 31st meeting of the Punjab Cabinet and the decision of 55th meeting of Cabinet’s Standing Committee on Finance and Development.
The government also revised its development and current expenditure projections for the outgoing fiscal year by 3.6 percent, from the original budget estimates of Rs1.97 trillion to Rs1.89tr.
The revised current spending estimates also include the expenditure of Rs85.4bn that were neither part of the provincial budget nor the government had sought approval from the assembly in June last year.
After the approval by the cabinet, the provincial Finance Minister Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha explained to the lawmakers why the government avoided presenting the full-year budget.
“We had authority under the article 125 of the constitution to give next year’s budget as the other provincial governments, but we decided to respect the limit of our mandate and avoided passing the burden of our development works onto the next government,” the minister noted.
Dr Pasha highlighted the achievements made under the leadership of the chief minister and said that numerous sectors including health, education and development, witnessed growth in comparison to other provinces.
She stated that the incumbent Punjab government had laid a network of roads, ended the power crisis in the province, and thousands were provided employment by way of development projects such as the Orange Line and Metro Bus projects.
The finance minister claimed that the provincial government had executed a record number of development projects in the past five years.
Our tax collection has soared by 345pc in the last 10 years and our performance has been acknowledged and commended by international organisations as well as foreign governments, she said.
The Punjab Assembly session turned boisterous when members of the opposition created a ruckus in the House.
