LAHORE: The Punjab government spends three percent of this fiscal year’s budget to service its debt, which stands at Rs421 billion, a senior minister said on Thursday. Punjab’s total budget outlay for 2015-16 is Rs1.45 trillion.
Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus-Pasha while addressing media at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said the provincial debt is only three percent of the its GDP.
Dr Ayesha said over one million workers were entering the labour market yearly in Punjab. To absorb this workforce Punjab has to grow at 7-8 percent. She said the province was growing at a higher pace than the national growth rate; still, she added the required growth rate has not been achieved yet.
Speaking of government priorities, the minister said the focus was on the energy sector, particularly the development of alternative energy sources; agriculture, water and irrigation; and industry based skill development. In this regard, she said the government was taking each manufacturing sector on board.
“Creating one million jobs is essential to eliminate extremism and terrorism,” she said.
Regarding revenues she pointed out that though most of the finances for the provinces come from the federation, those were not enough to take up all the development projects. She said provincial revenue generation was very low and came from excise, property, stamp duty, and services. She said 57 services have been added for service tax collection and more would be added in due course. Tax she added would be levied on the capacity of the payer.
She said that some non-development expenses were instrumental in ensuring long term prosperity. “For instance the salaries paid to the doctors and the allocations made for procuring medicines are in fact development expenses as these improve the health of human resource,” Dr Ayesha explained.
She regretted the unconfirmed figures about the provincial expenditure that were published. She said the per capita development allocation is highest for South Punjab.
She conceded that sometimes funds from one slow moving development project were transferred to the fast completing project.
However, she added these reallocations were for minor amounts. “For larger reallocation we seek permission from the provincial legislature,” she added. www.thenews.com.pk
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