KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the provincial government had witnessed a shortfall of Rs104 billion in the federal transfers this year. “This declining trend is bound to affect our cash flow and development endeavour.”
He expressed these views while talking to the media after attending the National Community Convention organised by Health and Nutrition Development Society (HANDS) at Gadap.
Answering a question, the CM said that this year the federal government transferred Rs104 billion less than the share of the provincial government.
“Last year, the federal government had transferred Rs266 billion during the first seven months and this year they have transferred only Rs256 billion,” he said, adding that in the history of Pakistan it was for the first time that the federal transfers had decreased to a value less than the previous year.
Shah said that last year in January the federal government had transferred Rs56 billion and this year in January they have transferred only Rs38 billion.
He added that this declining trend was dangerous and would affect their commitments, cash flow and development portfolio badly. “I was moving fast on the development of the province but looking at the trend in federal transfers, I have stopped development endeavours,” he deplored.
He said that he had heard that the federal government, having failed to achieve its revenue collection targets, was now planning to take away provincial government’s authority of collecting agriculture tax, General Sales Tax (GST) on goods and other taxes.
Shah said that the provincial government’s track record for the past five years shows an increase of 22% in revenue collections annually while the federal government could only show an increase of 8%.
“Instead of appreciating and giving rewards to the provincial government, the federal government was planning to take away the power of the provincial government of collecting taxes falling under its domain,” he said.
“If the powers of the collection of all the taxes go under the command of the federal government what will happen with national and provincial exchequers can only be imagined,” he added.
The chief minister said that the provincial governments can collect taxes in a better way than the federal government because they were close to the consumers. “I am of the opinion that power of the collection of sales tax should be given to the provinces completely,” he said.
Responding to another question, the CM said that his government would shortly release arrears of media houses with the condition to close outstanding salaries of their employees.
He added that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, during his visit to Karachi Press Club last week, had assured the journalists that he would work hard to resolve their issues of unemployment, retrenchment and the issues of freedom of expression and speech.
Earlier, while addressing the National Community Convention, the CM said that his government would support HANDS chief Dr Ghaffar Billo to establish a nursing institute. “We would support you by giving you charter for establishing the institute and would strengthen you financially,” he said.
“We [Sindh government] are partnering with you in providing health services in the province and I am sure our partnership will flourish with further expansion,” the CM said adding that the Sindh government was the pioneer of public-private partnership mode and his government had started using it in the road sector and then expanded it to education, health and now in the energy sector.
The chief minister appreciated HANDS for mobilising communities and generating community leaders to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030.
He distributed awards among the best mobilisers and also visited different stall set up by different district units of HANDS at the convention.
