For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the Sindh budget is being rationalized and ceiling is being fixed for the 23 administrative secretaries of 29 Sindh departments.

Basic objective of the budget rationalization is to cut the unnecessary funds being spent by these departments and in particular to contain the State Bank of Pakistan overdraft.

Among the various measures, this could be a major step taken by the Sindh Finance Department through which the budget expenditure could be controlled. Once this plan is implemented it is hoped that debt servicing will be controlled and all these savings could be diverted to development works which are at present in low profile. Once the budget is rationalized, borrowings by the Sindh government would also be controlled.

Official sources informed that plans were in progress and the implementation stage could arrive in the next fiscal year.

The expenditure ceiling would be fixed for the secretaries, additional secretaries, deputy secretaries and other officers. At present, the sources said, figure of the ceiling could not be figured out as the process of rationalizing was in progress. Once the plan was successfully implemented than it could be extended to the section officer level, they added. The sources said Sindh Education Department had a heavy budget of Rs 14 billion, Police Department of Rs 6 billion and Health Department of Rs 3.6 billion per year.

The Sindh government is facing a serious financial crisis and has asked for assistance from the federal government so that the development works could be geared up.

The current revenue of Sindh per year is Rs 10.98 billion under the head of different taxes and collections like stamp duty, motor vehicle tax, registration fee, property tax, 11 miscellaneous taxes collected by Excise and Taxation Department and the collection made by the Board of Revenue.

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