Govt releases Rs131bn development funds in first 10 months

Friday, May 13, 2011

ISLAMABAD: The government released Rs131 billion development funds in the first ten months (July-April) of the current fiscal year against the revised allocation of Rs150 billion.

The Planning Commission hopes that the entire released amount will be utilised by the end of June.

A working paper for Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC), which is going to meet on Friday for recommending Rs365 billion as federal share of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the next budget, states that since the allocation of ministries/divisions was reduced in certain cases by 70 percent, it was expected that the entire released amount would be utilised by them
.

The PSDP allocation for the current fiscal year was revised downward from Rs280 billion to Rs180 billion out of which Rs150 billion was given from domestic resources, while Rs30 billion was given by international donors to execute foreign-funded projects.

Under the revised allocation of Rs180 billion, the allocation for infrastructure was brought down from Rs135 billion to Rs74 billion, social sector outlay was slashed down from Rs134 billion to Rs100 billion and others from Rs11 billion to Rs6 billion.

The working paper states that the allocations were adjusted within the given size after an additional Rs4 billion was required to implement the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s decision to raise salary of lady health workers from Rs3,000 to Rs7,000.

For 2011-12, the APCC has been requested to recommend the National Economic Council (NEC) to approve Rs365 billion including allocation of Rs15 billion for Prime Minister’s discretionary funds for development schemes under Peoples Works Programme (PWP-II) and Rs5 billion for development schemes of parliamentarians under PWP-I.

The working paper states that the overall size of PSDP was proposed at Rs795 billionóRs365 billion the federal component and Rs430 billion the provincial component.

The proposed allocation for ministries/divisions would be Rs162 billion against the revised allocation of Rs96 billion in the current fiscal year.

The allocation for special areas such as FATA, Balochistan and others has been proposed at Rs28 billion against revised allocation of Rs23 billion for the ongoing fiscal year.

For corporations, the proposed development allocation is Rs70 billion against the revised allocation of Rs35 billion for the ongoing financial year.

The working paper states that the funds proposed for PSDP in 2011-12 by the Finance Division do not fully meet the funding requirement of ongoing projects.

To maintain the momentum of development and to accommodate the present government’s development priorities and the initiatives given in the nine-point agenda and draft new development strategy, it was necessary that the PSDP be enhanced to create employment, reduce poverty and achieve Millennium Development Goals, it says.