ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Planning was informed on Monday that all new development plans had been scrapped due to budgetary constrains, but allocations for projects being implemented under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be increased.

A meeting of the Senate committee was scheduled to discuss recent amendments to the finance bill concerning the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), but it faced impediments from the beginning as the members were told that the amendments were being compiled and the details would be available on Tuesday (today).

The chairman of the committee, Senator Agha Shahzaib Khan Durrani, made it a point to ask why there was a delay in the compilation of the cuts being made to the budget.

Asif Sheikh, adviser to the planning commission on the PSDP, explained that the government had only issued directives to reduce the development budget from Rs800 billion to Rs675bn. “We had to manage the reduction of Rs125bn in the PSDP through cuts across several sectors and ministries,” he said.

Government assures the panel that allocations for schemes being implemented under CPEC will get boost

The committee was told that the allocations for the projects had been agreed in consultation with the ministries concerned, but officials of the Federal Board of Revenue said that nobody had reached out to them. “We have important projects and we do not know if they have been scrapped or are on track,” an official said.

These remarks sparked criticism from the committee members who demanded the details of cuts made. The members were told that nominal increases had been made to CPEC projects in the amended finance bill and that there was no change in plans for water, health and education. Similarly, there have been no amendments to plans for projects in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and tribal districts.

However, allocations for power projects have decreased and 350 unapproved schemes that were introduced in the 2018-19 budget have been cancelled. Projects that have yet to commence or those that have only utilised 10-20 per cent of their total allocated costs have also been dropped.

The senators were not happy with the decision of the government to scrap all such projects, but Mr Sheikh argued otherwise. It was further explained to the committee that all projects falling under the discretionary fund of the prime minister had also been cancelled — a step that would save about Rs15bn.

Senator Rukhsana Zuberi of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Senator Kauda Babar, an independent member, opposed the decision to abandon the proposed development projects. However, the committee was told that the weak economic condition of the country meant that the projects could not easily be funded.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2018