Govt seeks parliament’s approval for record Rs3.68 trillion in supplementary grants

The federal government has sought parliament’s post-facto approval for a record Rs3.684 trillion in supplementary grants and re-appropriations, raising questions about budget planning and expenditure controls despite its stated commitment to fiscal discipline, Dawn reported. 

Budget documents show that over Rs3.2 trillion of the amount relates to FY2024-25, while around Rs485 billion pertains to the current fiscal year. The largest supplementary allocation for FY2024-25 was Rs2.6 trillion for debt servicing. 

Other major items included Rs430 billion for the power sector, Rs38 billion for grants and subsidies, Rs23 billion for the Defence Division and Rs22 billion for capital expenditure on civil works.

For FY2025-26, the largest supplementary allocation was Rs127.5 billion for grants and subsidies, followed by Rs112 billion for the power sector, Rs57 billion for the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Rs34 billion for the Defence Division, Rs30 billion for the Ministry of National Health Services, Rs22.4 billion for poverty alleviation and social safety programmes and Rs20 billion for the Interior Ministry.

Additional allocations included Rs14 billion for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Rs10 billion for the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Rs7.9 billion for civil works and Rs6.6 billion for railway development spending.

The power sector received Rs105.5 billion for equity injections into distribution companies and another Rs6.5 billion for development-related requirements.

In the education sector, Rs54 billion of the Rs57 billion supplementary allocation was utilised for the Daanish Education Trust, support for Quaid-i-Azam University, Cadet College Hassan Abdal and the Pakistan Education Endowment Fund.

The government also reported a Rs127.4 billion supplementary allocation for the Prime Minister’s Austerity Fund.

Other notable allocations included Rs30 billion for the procurement of vaccines and related materials on behalf of provincial governments, Rs22 billion for the Prime Minister’s Ramazan Package, Rs15 billion for law and order, Rs7 billion for development schemes of members of the National Assembly, Rs4.7 billion for a support package for missing persons and Rs1.4 billion for Frontier Corps deployments linked to the security of the Reko Diq project.

The documents further show that Rs11 billion was allocated to Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) for tariff adjustment and net-metering expenses, while Rs2.8 billion was provided for an English-language news channel.

The government also approved Rs2 billion for the Pakistan Digital Authority and Assan Khidmat Centre, and Rs800 million for the Pakistan Virtual Assets Authority.

Documents submitted by the Ministry of Finance show that the supplementary grants are more than four times higher than the Rs895 billion regularised by parliament last year.

The ministry said the expenditures relate to the period from May 17 to June 30 of FY2024-25 and from July 1 to May 15 of FY2025-26. According to the ministry, these expenses exceeded allocations approved by parliament and could neither be financed through existing budgetary resources nor deferred.

The government is seeking approval under Articles 80 to 84 of the Constitution after the expenditures have already been incurred.

Under budget rules, supplementary grants are intended for expenditures that could not be anticipated during the preparation of annual budget estimates. While technical supplementary grants involve transferring funds between budget heads without increasing overall spending, regular supplementary grants represent expenditure overruns that require parliamentary regularisation after the funds have already been spent.