HE government that promised change is starting its final fiscal year in power in exactly the same fashion as the other provincial set-ups ie with an election-year budget. Promising `no new taxes`, the finance minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa unveiled a budget that contains its largest hike for salaries and pensions of government employees, clearly an appeasement tool, with no additional resources to show for the innovative new revenue measures that were announced last year. The development budget appears more than three times larger this year, but only because of a metro bus project funded by the Asian Development Bank. Other than that, the provincial ADP is the same as last year`s, reflecting the paucity of resources despite a four-year run during which much could have been done to open up new revenue lines.

It is true that KP faces more acute challenges in its economic management than Sindh and Punjab, the other two provinces that have announced their budgets thus far. It is a frontline province in the war on terror and its economy is particularly resistant to yielding revenue considering a larger share of it is in the informal sector than in the other two provinces. Nevertheless, the ruling party had entered power with claims of bringing about rapid change simply by cleaning up corruption, which they claim they have done. If that is so, where are the results in the economic sphere, particularly as far as the budget is concerned? This question arises now because the party has entered its final year in power with intentions of not doing much beyond the metro bus project in Peshawar, and giving a big pay raise to all its employees. One bright spot for the provincial government is its relatively better track record in making resources available to local governments, where there is a healthy increase for next year too. But with this budget, it seems the PTI is now gearing towards elections like all its rivals.