ISLAMABAD: Except for four lucky ministries, the government has either reduced or kept unchanged the allocations to others for the next fiscal year under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2015-16).

According to budget documents, allocations have been substantially increased for four key sectors, relating to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and power. As such, allocations for ports and shipping, power, national highway authority and interior have accounted for almost 51.4 per cent (Rs299 billion) of the total PSDP envelop of Rs580bn.

Another major chunk of Rs40bn has been allocated for Railways division but the increase over the current year’s Rs39.6bn allocation is negligible.

The allocations for National Highway Authority (NHA) have seen the highest increase of around Rs90bn to Rs200bn for next year from Rs111.6bn this year, an increase of 79pc.

Another major increase of around 462pc has been made in the allocations for ports and shipping sector to Rs14.5bn for next year from Rs2.576bn. The additional allocations for this sector of Rs9.3bn have been made for CPEC projects. The total cost of these five projects is estimated at Rs42bn.

Major allocations include Rs4bn for construction of Break Waters, Rs300 million for capital dredging of berthing areas and channel for additional terminal for CPEC, Rs500m for infrastructure development of export processing zone at Gwadar, Rs3bn for Gwadar fresh water treatment and water supply and Rs1.3bn for Pak-China Technical and Vocational institute and up-gradation of hospital at Gwadar.

The allocations for aviation division have almost been doubled to Rs3.7bn for next year from Rs1.4bn this year but most of its projects are already in progress.

The Ministry of Interior has also seen a major increase of about 95pc in its allocations for next year at Rs7.6bn from Rs3.9bn this year. This would include Rs4.3bn additional allocations for new schemes, like Rs3.5bn earmarked for raising of civil armed forces (CAFs) for special security division of Chinese workers in Pakistan.

The allocations for power sector have also been increased from Rs63.6bn to Rs72.75bn, showing an increase of 14.4pc, but most of these funds would be utilised for ongoing projects except Rs1.6bn allocations for new projects for up-gradation of national grid and transmission system.

In overall terms, the allocations for federal ministries have been reduced from Rs296bn to Rs250.75bn for next year, a reduction of 15.5pc over the last year.

Another major reduction in allocations for next year has been made for Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), down by 43pc to Rs30bn from current year’s Rs52bn.

Also, the allocations for finance division have also been significantly cut down to Rs6bn for next year against Rs11bn this year. The allocations for almost all the other 32 ministries were either frozen at the current level or reduced.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2015

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