ISLAMABAD: Political tension created by the sit-ins has started adversely affecting development activities as the government has disbursed only five per cent of total allocations in the first two months of the current fiscal.
According to the Planning Commission, the government has released only Rs12 billion in Aug because of lack of demand from executing agencies due to low attendance of employees and slow down in work on development schemes by contractors.
Going by the approved mechanism, the government should have released about Rs70bn in July and Aug but it has so far released only Rs28bn, according to an official.
Also read: Rs1.31tr development plan approved
He said the government had released Rs16bn last month but the disbursement in Aug had come down to Rs12bn instead of going up.
The government has allocated Rs525bn for the Public Sector Development Programme for the current year.
It was required to release 20 per cent (Rs105bn) of the total allocation in the first quarter of this year.
Under the approved disbursement schedule, the government is supposed to release 20 per cent of total allocation in first three months of a fiscal year, followed by another 20pc in next quarter. The remaining 60pc of the allocation should be disbursed to the executing agencies and ministries and division at the rate of 30pc in each quarter.
Of the total disbursement, Rs22bn and Rs5.5bn have been earmarked for special areas like Azad Kashmir and states and frontier regions, including the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
In July and Aug, Rs2.1bn was released for major projects of Azad Kashmir and Rs3.4bn to the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions. No funds were released for Gilgit-Baltistan.
The highest disbursement of more than Rs9bn was made to the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, accounting to more than 40pc of total releases to federal ministries and divisions.
Another big chunk of Rs7.5bn was provided to the railways division, which has been allocated Rs40bn for the year.
The Planning Commission received just Rs18 million against an annual allocation of Rs33bn to support Pak-China Economic Corridor project.
The Higher Education Commission was given Rs4bn in Aug against total allocation of Rs20bn.
The cabinet division received Rs807m, the commerce ministry Rs72m, finance ministry Rs206m, interior ministry Rs581m and ministry of national health services, regulations and coordination Rs148m.
Besides, Rs500m was provided to the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority.
Interestingly, no funds were released for the water and power ministry, for which Rs107bn has been allocated for the fiscal.
On top of that, even though the government has earmarked Rs111.5bn for the National Highway Authority for road infrastructure, mostly under Pak-China Economic Corridor project, it has received no funds so far.
Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2014