On May 14, 2018, the Balochistan assembly presented a budget with a total expenditure of Rs 352.3 billion for the fiscal year 2018-19. The Fact of the matter is that the current federal government is going to end its tenure by the end of this month, which will eventually dissolve all assemblies, and interim government will take charge. For that interim government, the budget of Balochistan has been presented by the Advisor to the Chief Minister on Financial Affairs, Ruqayya Saeed Hashmi.
Analyzing the pros and cons of the framework of Balochistan budget, it is admirable that Government of Balochistan has worked in every dimension.
The milestone from this budget speech can be analyzed by the statement quoted from the Budget speech that, “deficit of more than Rs 61.7 billion has been shown in the budget. She said that the province would meet the deficit from its own resources”. Moreover, Ruqayya Saeed Hashmi emphasized that Rs27.9 billion has been allocated in the budget for over 1,231 ongoing developmental projects included in the Public Sector Developmental Programmes (PSDP).
The Government of Balochistan takes the Public Sector Developmental Programmes (PSDP) with high handed politics. Even the Chief Minister of Balochistan walked out from the meeting in which Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi preserved the rights of PSDP to the federal. Hence, the government of Balochistan is keen to develop the province and putting dire efforts in these projects. Furthermore, the provisional government cemented PSDP by inculcating 1,432 new schemes and allocating Rs 67.1 billion for this purpose. In holistic view, Rs 264.04 billion was allocated for non-developmental expenditures while Rs 88.3 billion was earmarked for developmental expenditures.
Looking at the other areas of Budget, the provisional government has allocated Rs 34 billion, specifically, for improving Law and Order situation of Balochistan. Law Enforcement Agencies will be equipped with modern technology so that terrorism and insurgency can be mitigated from the province. The budget also allots Rs19.4 for the promotion of health sector, Rs 43.9 billion for education and Rs 8.7 billion for the agriculture sector. Moreover, as there are low job opportunities in the province, the provisional government has decided to create more than 8000 job opportunities for educated youth.
The provisional government, in catering for the people of Balochistan, has allotted Rs 877 million on subsidy on wheat. This will help the poor people of Balochistan. In addition, Rs 4 billion has been allocated for improving the livelihood of farmers in the rural areas of Balochistan. For the working class, Balochistan has decided a 10 percent increase to be made in their salaries and pensions of government employees.
Overall having a bird’s eye view, this budget is quite friendly to people of the province, except for the lower amount dedicated to the educational sector. People of Balochistan will get synced to the budget and province will achieve robust development in coming years.
