ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: Pakistan’s development expenditure during the first quarter (July 1-September 30) of the current fiscal amounted to a meagre Rs24.851 billion or only 15.5 per cent of its Rs160 billion target for the whole year, official figures available with Dawn indicate.

“At this pace of spending, the government would hardly be able to utilize Rs100-110 billion by the end of the fiscal year against a budgetary allocation of Rs160 billion,” said a senior government official.

The official, requesting anonymity, said the slow PSDP (Public Sector Development Programme) utilization during the earlier part of the year would force the authorities to make hasty releases in the last quarter thus compromising the quality of project implementation.

The public sector spendings have remained slow despite the fact that principal accounting officers of the respective ministries and divisions have been authorized to draw up to 45 per cent of the total allocation without prior approval to ensure maximum utilization, quality implementation and timely completion of projects.

The defence expenditure during the first quarter, however, amounted to Rs45.745 billion or 28.5 per cent of budgetary allocation of Rs160.25 billion for the year 2003-04. If the current pace continues, the defence spending would end up at around Rs183 billion, about Rs23 billion higher than the annual target.

Official figures duly verified by the Auditor General of Pakistan Revenue and the State Bank of Pakistan also suggest that total expenditure during the first quarter stood at 4.3 per cent of GDP, outpacing revenue collection which was recorded at 3.7 per cent of GDP.

The total public sector expenditure during the first quarter stood at Rs206.5 billion while current expenditure amounted to Rs159 billion against a full year target of Rs805 billion and Rs645 billion, respectively.

Of this, the federal expenditure amounted to Rs116.783 billion while the provincial expenditure stood at Rs42 billion. As such, the total expenditure turned out to be 4.3 per cent of GDP while current expenditure amounted to 3.6 per cent of GDP during the first quarter.

Total revenue amounted to Rs165.6 billion, of which CBR revenue, surcharges and non-tax revenue totalled Rs95.3 billion, Rs16 billion and Rs45.8 billion, respectively. Total privatization proceeds amounted to Rs1.999 billion during the first quarter of the year.

Total interest payments during the July-September 2003 period amounted to Rs44 billion or one per cent of GDP. Total unidentified expenditure amounted to Rs14.455 billion during the first quarter.

Thus, the budget deficit during the period July-September 2003 was recorded at Rs41 billion against a full year target of Rs179 billion. This gap was bridged through a combination of external resources at Rs4.933 billion and domestic borrowing of Rs34 billion. The bank and non-bank borrowing amounted to Rs9.88 billion and Rs24.123 billion, respectively.

Similarly, the four provinces collected a total of Rs58.875 billion. The provincial share in the federal taxes amounted to Rs39.432 billion while total provincial expenditure stood at Rs59.131 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Federal loans and transfers to the provinces totalled Rs5.233 billion during July-September period.

Punjab collected a total revenue of Rs27.108 billion and its total expenditure amounted to Rs31.872 billion. Of this, Rs18.864 billion share went to the federal revenue. Punjab’s current expenditure amounted to Rs25.56 billion, of which PSDP spendings stood at Rs6.3 billion and overall budget deficit was recorded at Rs4.764 billion.