ISLAMABAD: Although the caretakers have been in the saddle for five months, the development schemes of former members of the National Assembly (MNAs) belonging to the PDM-led coalition continued to overshadow the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) during the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year.
The expenditure on MNAs schemes in the first six months outshine normal development activities like building of dams and roads, and schemes related to health and education, both in absolute terms and in proportion to allocations.
The latest data released by the Planning Commission, however, suggests a relative slowdown in utilisation of PSDP funds for MNAs’ schemes in November after substantial spending during the first four months (July to October).
The overall PSDP expenditure during the first half of the current financial year (July-December 2023) rose to Rs149.67 billion from Rs117bn a month ago. The biggest share of Rs35.14bn was spent on MNAs schemes during the period.
Though development programme cut by 10pc, allocations for former legislators’ schemes remain untouched
While the overall spending in December stood at Rs33bn, down from Rs41bn in November, the MNAs’ schemes consumed about Rs6bn last month, while the amount for the previous month was Rs2.3bn.
The parliamentarians’ schemes are financed through PSDP under the head, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Achievement Programme (SAP).
Cut in PSDP
Interestingly, the planning commission has now reduced the size of the federal PSDP by Rs10bn to Rs940bn against the budget approval of Rs950bn.
The cut has been imposed on the prime minister’s initiative from Rs80bn to 70bn in November. But more interestingly, Rs90bn allocations for former MNAs’ schemes have remained untouched.
The PDM-led government had allocated slightly over Rs90bn for parliamentarians’ schemes for the current fiscal year and authorised Rs 61bn for release before leaving office in the second week of August.
But it was able to utilise only Rs14.4bn in the first two months — by Aug 31.
The pace of expenditure on these schemes did not slow down over the following two months. It reached Rs22.9bn by the end of the first quarter on Sept 30 and crossed Rs35bn by end-December, accounting for 39pc of the annual allocation.
As such, the actual spending on SAP during the first six months of the year consumed 38pc of the total budget allocation for the purpose, or over 57pc of the amount authorised by the Planning Division.
No other sector could get close to the SAP utilization in proportion to annual allocations. For example, the second biggest PSDP expenditure during the period was Rs29.5bn, or just 17pc, for the special areas like Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and ex-Fata against their total annual allocation of Rs170bn.
Poor utilisation
The official data showed that excluding SAP, the actual development expenditure by over 30 ministries and divisions in six months amounted to just Rs95bn, against their annual allocation of Rs563bn, accounting for less than 17pc.
Another Rs25bn was spent in the water sector against its annual allocation of Rs110.5bn, accounting for about 22.6pc from July to December. Likewise, Rs15.3bn was spent by two other major sectors — the National Highway Authority and power companies — against their total allocation of Rs212bn for the year, even though substantial foreign exchange inflows had materialised in these two sectors.
The NHA consumed Rs13bn, or 8.3pc of its Rs156bn allocation, while power companies spent Rs2.28bn, or just 4pc of the Rs55.3bn allocation for the year.
Ironically, the Higher Education Commission could utilise only Rs9bn, or 15pc of Rs60bn allocation, while the Housing and Works Division spent Rs4.8bn, or 11.7pc of an allocation of Rs41bn.
The Railways division t utilised more than Rs11.4bn against its annual allocation of Rs33bn.
No other ministry or division could cross Rs1.5bn in the first six months, although some of them had large portfolio allocations, for instance Rs25bn for the Planning Division, Rs13bn for the health sector and so on.
Under the disbursement mechanism announced by the Planning Division, the development funds allocated in the federal budget should be released at a rate of 20pc in the first quarter, 30pc each in the second and third quarters, and the remaining 20pc in the last quarter of each fiscal year.
The data showed the caretaker government has authorised for disbursement a total of Rs305.9bn, or additional authorisations of only Rs3bn in December as it authorisations stood at Rs302.6bn by end-November.
The PDM-led government had authorised the release of almost 70pc (Rs61.3bn) of the Rs90bn it had allocated in the budget for parliamentarians’ SAP schemes within the first three weeks of the fiscal year.
In comparison, disbursements authorised for all the ministries, divisions and corporations had stood at Rs74bn against their budgetary allocation of Rs860bn — just 8.6pc. These authorisations included a major chunk of Rs37.4bn for the National Highway Authority (NHA) at the time.
This will be third year in row that the country’s under-funded infrastructure development would remain constrained by drastic cuts even in funds allocated by parliament.
Last year, the development programme was marred by massive floods. Consequently, development projects would face negative impacts of insufficient funding, affecting the standards of living of people already suffering from a record inflation.
Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2024
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