KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the PTI government was asking for the accounts of Rs. 18 billion it has reportedly given to the province, but we are asking them to account for Rs9000 billion they have recovered under different taxes from the people of this province during the last three years.
"We are not showing our performance through press conferences, tall claims, and pack of lies but our performance is evident from the results of the elections we have been winning one after another with widening majority and setting a record of winning all the bye-elections," he said while addressing an open kutchery at Meerut Housing Society Ahsanabad on Sunday.
The Chief Minister said that some of the federal ministers and representatives of the PTI government had, shamelessly, asked for the accounts of Rs18 billion they had given to the provincial government during the last three years. He categorically said that he was not answerable before them. "I am answerable to the people of this province, and they always repose their confidence in the PPP by giving it mandate to rule," he said.
Shah said that the PTI government has collected Rs9000 billion from Karachi during the last three years but what they have given in return to Sindh, except short payments of Rs370 billion from its share, rendering 25,000 employees, including 1650 of Pakistan Steel Mills mjobless, making people under-employed through abnormal inflation, unleashing the ghost of ever-increasing price hike, creating wheat and sugar crisis and causing an overall unrest among the people of the country.
He said that he would be happy if the federal government or any other agency was coming to Sindh to undertake development projects, adding we will welcome them.
He said that the 'selected' government of PTI has no ability or strength to rule- they have destroyed the economy, promoted nepotism and corruption and torn apart the ethics of the political culture.
He said the federal government has completely failed to show an appropriate growth in the national economy and they had missed their tax collection targets.
Talking about revenue collection of his government, Shah said that the provincial tax receipts during 2020-21 were Rs128.52 billion which showed a 28 percent increase as compared to the last year. He said this year the tax collection target has been set at Rs154.94 billion.
He said that during the same year the Sindh Sales Tax on Services was collected at Rs.135billion and non-tax receipts were Rs49.87 billion. If our three-year performance in terms of revenue receipts is calculated it shows a 14 percent increase, he said.
He said the Current Revenue Expenditure for 2021-22, is estimated to grow by 12 percent to Rs.1089.372 billion in 2021-22. "The increase is mainly because the salary and pension bill is rising by 13 percent and 10 percent, respectively; grants to local bodies have been increasing by 5 percent to Rs.82.00 billion; police department's budget surged by 5 percent to Rs.106.913 billion, health budget has increased by 30 percent to Rs.181.217 billion due to Covid-19 situation, education budget is raised by 13.2 percent to Rs.268.414 billion, and Rs.30.9 billion have been allocated for pro-poor Social Protection and Economic Sustainability Initiatives".
He said the funds allocated for Women Development department in 2021-22 have been increased by 64.09% from Rs348.581 million to Rs 571.975million, and added Rs 64 million have been kept for the poor women and children in Sindh. He said that Darul Amaans at Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana and Shaheed Benazirabad have been handed over to the Women Development Department.
The CM said that the overall Current Revenue Expenditure of Education Sector on Expenditure Side has been increased by 14.2 percent from Rs243.143 billion to Rs.277.556 billion in 2020-21. He said that the government schools were being built for Rs5 billion, free textbooks distribution is under way for Rs.2.3 billion, non-formal education centrew being operationalized for Rs.600 million to reduce the rate of `out of reach' school children, furniture being provided to schools for Rs.6.623 billion. We are also providing stipends to girl students for which Rs.800 million have been allocated, he said.
Murad Shah said that in order to develop a mass transit system Rs7.640 billion have already been allocated. "We are procuring 250-Diesel Hybrid Electric Buses under "Sindh Intra-District Peoples Buses Services Project for Rs.6.476 billion," he said. He added that Red Line and Blue Line projects of Rs35 billion and Rs28 billion, respectively, were being launched within the next few months.
He said that under the Karachi package 132 schemes have been completed for Rs43068.777 million. Of them 89 schemes of Rs18764.329 million were executed by local government department, 33 by Mega project team for Rs21983.189 million and 10 by KDA for Rs2321.259 million. He said that 113 schemes of Rs18008.028 million were in progress, including 71 schemes by local govt department for Rs14571 million, four by mega project team of Rs1395.319 million and 38 by KDA for Rs2041.709 million. He said that Rs28315.258 million schemes were under the process of approval.
The CM said that the Covid-19 has become a global challenge, especially in the areas of public health, employment, economic growth and social and business protection. Resultantly, for this extraordinary challenge, the matching measures were to be taken. During 2019-20 Rs.6.9 billion were provided through Corona Emergency Fund (CEF) and Special Grants in 2020-21, Rs.25.7 billion were provided to Covid-19 related activities specially by providing Health Risk Allowances, PPEs, PCR Kits, Ration Bags, Cold Chain Storage and establishing Covid-19 Isolation and Vaccinations Centres.
During CFY 2021-22 Rs.4.2 billion have been provided so far to combat with covid-19.
After his speech, he invited public complaints and issued on the spot directives to resolve them. He directed the commissioner Karachi to show zero tolerance against land grabbing.
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