CM orders audit of pension payments

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was taking serious notice of incurring huge expenditures on account payments of pensions and ordered high level inquiry.

He issued these directives while presiding over a meeting of three-year Budget Strategy, 2016-17 to 2020-21 here at the Chief Minister House, said a statement issued here on Thursday.

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, all the concerned officers of finance, planning and development and Sindh Revenue Board (SRB).

The chief minister, during the presentation, was told that over the financial year of 2015-16 the payments of pension were recorded at Rs 52.8 billion and it went up to Rs 70 billion in 2016-17 and again increased up to Rs 76 in 2017-18. On this the chief minister said that the amount being spent on payments of pension is quite huge and seems to be dubious.

The chief minister directed his Principal Secretary Sohail Rajput to constitute a high-power inquiry and audit committee to investigate into the payments.

The audit and inquiry should be started from the districts where huge payments have been made, he said. Adding that the audit must be made in a most professional and transparent manner.

The chief minister also directed the finance department to computerize the entire pension system along with the payments, number of pensioners. There should be proper software for pensioners, he said.

The chief minister was told that in 2015-16 the development expenditures were Rs 137.3 billion, in 2016-16 Rs 210.1 billion and in 2017-18 Rs 344.1 billion.

The meeting was told that that during the last three years the revenue receipts have shown an increase of 8.9 percent while the next year an increase of 14 percent is expected. During 2015-16 Rs 650.9 billion were received, in 2016-17 Rs 692.9 billion and in 2017-18 Rs 854.3 billion are expected to be received.

The chief minister was also informed that straight transfer from the federal government were Rs 518 billion in 2015-16, Rs 539.9 billion in 2016-17, Rs 654.6 billion in 2017-18.

The provincial government expects that in 2018-19 it would be around Rs 743.1 billion, in 2019-20 Rs 845.4 billion and in 2020-21 933.4 billion are expected.

The chief minister directed his finance and planning & Development team to make budget strategy, particularly of development as per projected figures.

It was also pointed out that in the head of Services on Sales Tax Rs 61.5 billion were received in 2015-16, Rs 78.5 billion in 2016-17 and Rs 100 billion are expected in 2017-18 and in 2018-19 it would be more Rs 115 billion.