'Strict projects monitoring has reduced pilferage to minimum'

Punjab Finance Minister Hasnain Bahadur Dareshak on Monday said that stringent monitoring system, put in place by the present government, had brought down pilferage in the projects to a minimal level.
"We have set up monitoring units for all mega projects to ensure fiscal transparency," he said while briefing members of Lahore Economic Journalists Association (LEJA) at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) here on Monday.
Referring to the outcome of financial discipline in the education system, he said that pilferage in the schemes, like stipend for students and distribution of free of cost textbooks among the students, was 0.03 percent and 0.05-0.07 percent, respectively. "We are committed to even eliminate this level of pilferage, too," he added.
About break-up of Punjab's financial resources, he said that the province's budget dependence on federal divisible pool was up to 80 percent, and that any change in the distribution formula of divisible pool could affect Punjab province the most.
Dareshak said that collection of the provincial revenue like property tax and transfer fee had been above target due to real estate boom in the recent past. He said that the element of discretion had almost been eliminated from health, education and water and sanitation sectors.
He said that development expenditures had risen to the level of 42 percent of total 2007-08 budget. Responding to a question, he said that Punjab's claim to Ghazi Barotha hydel power project's net hydel profit had accumulated to Rs 16 billion over last four years.
He said that Multiple Indicators Cluster (MIC) was being updated in line with present-day realities. He said that an amount of Rs 22 billion had been spent to provide the missing facilities in schools in the province. However, he said, it was very difficult to provide classroom facilities at all 63,000 schools as it would cost about Rs 105 billion.
The Minister said that Punjab had been generating one million additional jobs annually over last five years. To another query, he said that total debt stock stood at Rs 266 billion during 2006-07 which formed about 74 percent of the budget, against 193 percent in the budget for 1990-91.