BALOCHISTAN has many problems besides its fiscal difficulties, but the
medium-term viability of the provincial economy depends on some key
reform measures. Unf ortunately, where the present provincial government
has shown some discipline in restraining provincial expenditures over
the last four years, it has not been able to do anything about the most
important reform required: the tube well subsidy and the growing water
scarcities that are confronting Balochistan.
The latest budget by
the Balochistan government is the typical election year budget that all
the other provincial governments have also announced.
Discretionary
spending is up, with Rs300m given to each legislator to spend in their
respective constituency. Spending on education is also up, but more than
Rs2bn to spend on building schools is a way of using education funds to
make hay with the construction mafia. No new revenue measures were
announced, and the devel-opment budget that classic tool for buying
votes has been hiked as in all the other provinces.
But Balochistan has one problem that sets it apart from the other provinces.
Water
is disappearing from its water tables under the growing use of tube
wells, electricity for which is subsidised by the provincial government.
Almost twothirds of the electricity distributed in the province is
consumed by tube wells that pump water from depths of almost 300 metres
in some places. The provincial government has been asking international
donors for help in dealing with the water scarcity. But what any
potential donor would like to see are the steps the government is taking
to help itself.
Unfortunately, the present budget will provide
no answers. Elections will come and go, but the coming period of water
scarcity requires serious attention from provincial authorities
immediately. They have missed an important opportunity to start down
that road in this budget.
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