The dust over federal budget 2010-11 hasn settled yet, as concerns from almost every corner of the country, particularly the political power houses are emerging.
Surprisingly, not for the first time though, opposition and the coalition partners, both seem to be on the same boat in the disapproval of the budget, which the government is said to have announced without taking its coalition partners on board.
As a consequence, its approval from the parliament floor appears to be in jeopardy, at least in its existing shape.
Though, both PML-Q and PML-N were expected to blindly criticize the budget, few were expecting the governments important coalition partner MQM to come out in criticism of the budget. This makes the passing of the budget an uphill task
"We are not taken on board and were not consulted during the budget preparation, which is why we do not accept this budget. VAT is now a secondary topic, we will deal with it when the turn comes, but our primary objective now is to force the government to revise the GST rate down to 16 percent", MQM Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan told BR Research.
Agreed that Finance Minister Dr. Hafeez Shaikh has de-emphasised the importance of federal budget - -saying that provincial budgets are more important and relevant; which is true in the post-NFC era.
But, how does ditching the most relevant players in the consultation process guarantee proper planning for provincial budgets, is one question that remains a mystery.
The major bone of contention between the federation and the federating units is that of the 50 percent ad-hoc increase in the salaries of government employees announced in the federal budget.
All the provinces, as a consequence, are bound to raise the bar, which will undoubtedly add pressure on their respective budgets, especially when all the preparations before the budget, were in accordance with a 25 percent increase pitched earlier by the federal government.
Punjab government has signalled that this decision will put a burden of Rs42 billion on their expenditures, and has demanded the federal government to pool in 25 percent of this amount.
It seems less likely that any such request from the provinces will be entertained, which could eventually lead to a major slash in the ever-soft targets of education and health expenditure.
Legislators from the coalition partner, MQM, share the same views. "The decision of raising the salaries in haste will only make matters worse for provincial governments, as the axe would fall on education and health. This shows governments intentions, which do not seem to be clear to anyone", Haseeb Khan argues.
Being provincial subjects, health and education were expected to be given more importance in provincial budgets, which seems less likely in the current scheme of things.
The problem, however, presents the provincial governments with the opportunity to find ways to increase revenue generation.
In the post budget debate on Tuesday, the opposition leader, Chaudhry Nisar urged the government to impose tax on agriculture income. "Why those earning not lakhs but crores from agriculture should not pay tax.... this anomaly must be removed," Nisar roared on the assembly floor.
But here is the thing; someone needs to tell him, that agriculture is a provincial subject and Punjab government is more than welcome to tax the agriculture income. Will PML-N bell the cat?