LAHORE: Punjab government has planned to introduce such a budget that would be people-friendly and put no burden of additional taxes on the poor rather they would be equipped with skills to enable them to play an effective role in the overall development of the country.
Punjab Finance Minister Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha expressed these views in a consultative meeting organized jointly by Punjab Finance Department and Sub-National Governance Programme.
Punjab Citizen Budget document simplifies the technical and complex information in the annual budget document so as to make it easily understandable for common citizens enabling them to comprehend the government objectives and also give their input in this regard, she said.
The meeting aimed to highlighting importance of the Citizen Budget as well as distribution of transparency report on provincial budget-2014.
Dr. Aisha mentioned that Punjab government had been publishing the citizen budget in Urdu and English languages and this year, it would also be distributed among the legislative institutions. The budget report, she added, would help these institutions in interpreting the salient features of current budget document 2015-16.
Provincial Finance Minister said, “I am happy that Punjab Budget Transparency Review termed more transparent than the budgets of other provinces and at the same time, its lacunas and drawbacks are also pointed out such as issuance of completion report of the budget and lack of public participation.” In an effort to remove these deficiencies, she maintained, the Punjab government decided to prepare completion reports of the budget by mid and end of next year.
She said that Budget Transparency Review and Citizen Budget were the outcome of the reforms being introduced by provincial government in the public financial management and revenue mobilization.
