ISLAMABAD: The federal government which announced over a trillion rupees worth development budget last year, has only released Rs 357.507 billion under its Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) 2017-18 for various ongoing and new schemes during the past seven months while allocated funds for various departments and divisions have not been released so far.
As the government has Rs1001 billion for development projects in the current budget, it needs to release Rs 644 billion in remaining five months of this fiscal year.
According to available documents of Ministry of Planning and Development, the allocated funds for various departments and divisions including National Security Division, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Textile Division, Energy for All Program, Clean Drinking Water for All, and Special Provision for completion of CPEC projects have also not been released during the past seven months.
The released funds, as on January 26 2018, include Rs104.03 billion for Federal Ministries, Cabinet Division, Aviation Division, Capital Administration and Development Division, Railway Division, Communication Division, Defence Division, Establishment Division, Defence Production Division, Suparco, Human Rights Division, Revenue Division etc.
Out of these allocations, the government has released Rs116.39 billion for National Highway Authority for which Rs325.7 billion have been allocated for the year 2017-18, whereas for Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) an amount of Rs19.28 billion has been released out of total allocation of Rs64.28 billion.
As per the new data, Railways Division received Rs15.24 billion out of its total allocation of Rs42.9 billion whereas Aviation Division received Rs964.8 million out of its total allocation of Rs4.348 billion.
The government also released an amount of Rs11.628 billion for various development projects of Higher Education Commission out of total allocation of Rs35.662 billion, while Rs3.9 billion has been released for Atomic Energy Commission.
Water and Power Division received Rs 11.8 billion out of its total allocation of Rs 36.75 billion under PSDP 2017-18. The government also released Rs 8.1 billion for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Division, for which an amount of Rs 48.701 billion have been allocated in the federal PSDP 2017-18 while Rs 201 million has been released for Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority out of its total allocations of Rs 409.553 million.
An amount of Rs10 billion has been released for Finance Division out of its total allocations of Rs20.143 billion while 326m have been released for Climate Change Division out of its total allocations of Rs815 million for the current year.
Similarly an amount of Rs 3.99 billion have been released for Petroleum and Natural Resource Division out of its allocations of Rs 5.278 billion, Rs 1.832 billion for Planning, Development and Reform Division out of its allocations of Rs 10.869 billion whereas Rs 1 billion have been released for SUPARCO out of its allocations of Rs 3.5 billion.
Likewise, the government also released Rs 6.26 billion for Housing and Works division while Rs 80 million for Human Rights Division, and Rs 400 million for National Food Security and Research Division.
The government has also released Rs 14.715 billion for AJK (block and other projects) out of its allocations of Rs 25.844. billion, Rs7.70 billion for Gilgit Baltistan (block and other projects) out of its allocations of Rs 18.3 billion whereas Rs 10.5 billion have been released for SAFRON/FATA (Block and other projects) out of its total allocations of Rs 26.90 billion for the FY2018.
The government also released Rs 30 billion for Prime Minister’s Global SDGS Achievement Programme whereas Rs 3.15 billion has been released for ERRA out of its total allocations of Rs 7.5 billion.
An amount of Rs 9.199 billion have been released for Prime Minister’s Youth Hunarmand Programme out of its total allocations of Rs 20 billion, according to the data.
