his is my 12^th budget as finance minister of Sindh,” said Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of finance in the provincial government. He was presenting the Rs 2,247.581 billion budget for the financial year 2023-24 in the provincial assembly on June 10. He had first become the finance minister during Syed Qaim Ali Shah’s chief ministership (2008-2013).

In the deficit budget, the provincial government has set aside more than 30 percent of the funds for development schemes, including the restoration of rural infrastructure destroyed by the 2022 floods.

The Rs 721 billion development allocation this year is 72 percent larger than previous year’s Rs 459.657 billion.

The development outlay is truly impressive but in view of the capacity issues some experts have voiced reservations over the large development allocation. They have pointed out that relatively smaller amounts in recent years have remained unspent. “This year, too, 40 to 50 percent of the development budget is likely to remain unspent,” says Naseer Memon.

Memon says about a third of the development budget for the next year consists of foreign funding. A forensic audit of the spending for development as well as relief and rehabilitation of the flood victims last year revealed misappropriation of funds and financial irregularities. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have provided $2 billion to the provincial government for post-flood recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

“For the next fiscal year, most of the development budget is being funded through foreign donors. There is a greater need, therefore, for transparency and timely spending of these funds,” says Memon.

The Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) project is vital in that during the recent floods most of the districts located on the right bank of the River Indus were inundated in the absence of an outfall drain. However, neither the federal, not the provincial government has allocated money for the completion of the RBOD, which was damaged during the 2010 floods.

“The provincial budget has a nominal allocation of Rs 5 million for the RBOD,” says Memon. Even though RBOD is a federal project being implemented by the WAPDA, the federal government has not made an allocation for it. During the 2022 floods, irrigation experts were of the view that the RBOD should be completed as soon as possible to provide an outlet for flood water.

“Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the devastating rains and floods in 2022, the Sindh government spent record money on welfare and development of infrastructure during the last five years,” says Murad Ali Shah. The government has allocated Rs 500 billion for social protection in the budget. This money will be used to provide cash transfers, food subsidies and to finance other social safety programmes for the poor and the vulnerable.

In view of the capacity issues, some experts have voiced reservations about the large development allocations. They have pointed out that relatively smaller allocations for development in the recent years have been let unspent.

Chief Minister Shah says after the floods and the International Geneva Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan, the Sindh government had convened a donors conference in Karachi on February 7, for the reconstruction of flood-hit areas of Sindh. Many commitments of funding for development projects were made during the conference. The money will be used to rebuild homes, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure damaged or destroyed by the floods.

Providing details about flood losses in his budget speech, the chief minister said the post-flood assessment conducted by the district administrations, the World Bank, the UNDP, the EU and others showed that more than 4.4 million acres of farm land was affected and irrigation and flood protection systems were damaged. He said Sindh was the most affected province with more than 70 percent of the land submerged and more than 12.4 million people affected.

Moreover, he said, about 436,435 livestock worth $117.3 million were lost and nearly 60 percent of the road network was lost. 2.36 million houses were destroyed, affecting 12.36 million people. 2,548 government buildings were damaged, representing nearly 83 percent of the nationwide figure.

Sindh alone, he said, had suffered a loss of $5.5 billion in the housing sector. During the flood and rain emergency, 26 mobile hospitals were deployed in 16 districts to provide health facilities to the flood and rain-affected people. More than 190,000 patients were treated and provided free medicines. More than 20,000 medical tests were conducted by the mobile hospitals in 46 days of emergency.

“To ensure effective operation and maintenance of these mobile hospitals, we have allocated Rs 556.863 million for the financial year 2023-24. The UNHCR and the UNWFP helped with the supply of food items to the affected areas,” said the chief minister.

Besides the increased spending on education, health and social welfare, the Murad Ali Shah government has kept a substantial portion of the budget outlays for infrastructure development, which the chief minister says is a key priority.

The government has also raised the minimum wage for unskilled workers from Rs 25,000 to Rs 33,750. Besides, the government has raised the salaries of government employees by up to 35 percent and pensions by 17.5 percent for the 2023-24 fiscal year. The minimum legal wage for the private sector in Sindh is now higher than the federal government’s Rs 32,000. The raise for government employees, however, is at par with the federal government employees, i.e., 35 percent for Grades 1 to 16 and 30 percent for officers of Grade 17 and above.

The provincial government has earmarked an amount of Rs 312.245 billion for the education sector in budget estimates for 2023-24, representing a 7 percent raise over last year’s Rs 292.47 billion.

The chief minister claims that the government has secured a Rs 7.66 billion Chinese grant for rehabilitating and rebuilding 646 schools. Also, under the Flood Restoration Programme and Development through Enhanced Education Programme (DEEP), more than 112 damaged school buildings and facilities will be restored in five districts at a cost of Rs 3.01 billion.

The writer is a senior journalist, working for a news channel in Karachi. He can be reached at shuja98@gmail.com