Punjab, Sindh budgets
June 18, 2021
Sindh and Punjab announced their budgets earlier this week, with the former announcing a deficit budget and the latter a surplus one. Both were decried as “anti-people” by their opponents and “inclusive” by their supporters. The truth is that both contained some good and some bad features — and a lot of holes.
Sindh advertised its new budget as “tax-free”, referring to the fact that it contains no new taxes. This sounds good, until the unfortunate realisation that the Rs1.478 trillion budget contains little in the way of new projects, despite also adding Rs25.73 trillion to the deficit. This deficit will have invariably increased by the end of the fiscal year in question, as the largest revenue component is federal transfers, which in turn are based on the FBR’s collection targets, which are never met.