KARACHI – Sindh budget for year 2020-21 about one point 241 (1.241) trillion rupees has been presented with a deficit of 18 point 38 billion rupees.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah who also holds the portfolio of Finance presented the budget in the provincial Assembly in Karachi this evening. Strong protest was staged by opposition members in the House.
The government has also announced to increase the salaries of the Sindh Government employees according to which salaries of employees from Grade 1 to 16 will be increased by 10 percent while salaries of Grade 17 to 22 employees will be increased to 5 percent.
“In 2020-21, the estimate of expenditure on Health Risk Allowance is Rs1.0 billion,” he said, adding that the testing capacity for the virus has been raised to 11,450 daily.
In all the districts, there are 81 quarantine centres with 8,266 beds, and in June 2020 it has been increased to 8,616, he told the assembly.
The CM said that 101 additional ventilators were bought and a local hospital at Karachi’s Nipa Chowrangi was given a grant of Rs2.0 billion.
“A committee was formed to give timely and adequate facilities,” said Shah, elaborating that the committee bought machinery and tools worth Rs2.43 billion to deal with the pandemic.
The CM Sindh further said that for the education sector, Rs21.1 billion have been allocated for 11 new, unapproved projects.
For the pre-existing 265 schemes and four new ones, Rs 13.2 billion have been set aside, said Shah.
Earlier, Chief Minister Shah presided over a cabinet session at the CM House today to review budget recommendations.
In the meeting, the cabinet gave approval for raising the salaries of government employees by 10 %, according to the provincial government spokesperson.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the rules of the Assembly were slightly altered so the members could attend the session virtually from their homes.
According to sources, only 25% of the lawmakers will attend the session in-person.
Special measures have been taken ahead of the session to ensure the safety of the lawmakers as those MPAs will be allowed inside who have tested negative for the virus.
Among other recommendations in the budget documents, Rs5 billion have been allocated to deal with the pandemic measures.
The documents showed that there was no new agricultural research scheme in the provincial budget.
The recommendations also included the allocation of Rs7.2 billion for Malir Expressway and Rs1.86 billion for Karachi-Thatta double-track road.
