ISLAMABAD: Spending via the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) has continued to contract during the current financial year 2018-19, due to revenue shortfall and tight fiscal conditions.
During July-November of FY19, total disbursements under PSDP by the Planning Commission were recorded at Rs182 billion compared to Rs305 billion in the same period of last year, a fall of 40.3%, according to reports.
Latest figures outed by the Planning Commission show total spending of Rs182 billion till December 7th, 2018, which accounts for approximately 27% of overall revised PSDP allocation of Rs675 billion.
Compared to disbursements in exact SPLY, the Planning Commission had released Rs305 billion which was over 38% of the revised allocation of Rs800 billion.
The figures released by the Planning Commission indicate Rs71 billion was disbursed by it to all 39 federal ministries and divisions in July-November of FY19.
The money disbursed to the aforementioned ministries works out to 24.4% of their 291.5 billion yearly allocation against Rs71.14 billion released in SPLY working out to 23.6% of revised allocation of Rs301 billion.
Moreover, the figures released highlight the Planning Commission failed to disburse any funds for development of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
The failure to disburse funds for FATA comes after the PTI government had approved an allocation of Rs10 billion for the region in the supplementary budget it announced in September as a federal contribution to the ten-year development programme after its amalgamation as districts of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces.
In 2017, the previous PML-N administration had disbursed around Rs10.5 billion for states and tribal regions in SPLY against a yearly allotment of Rs26.9 billion.
However, disbursements for Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) have been on the higher side this financial year.
As per yearly allocation of Rs25.8 billion for AJK region, Rs10.7 billion have been disbursed by the Planning Commission in July-November of FY19.
Similarly, Rs7.8 billion has been disbursed in the aforementioned period to GB from its annual allocation of Rs17.8 billion against Rs7.44 billion out of Rs18.3 billion in SPLY.
The disbursements out of federal budgets to corporations as a percentage of total allotments were higher largely due to near completion of the majority of the projects that have been under execution since past few years, most of them under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
