ISLAMABAD: The government only managed to spend around 41 per cent of the development funds allocated for the fiscal year despite the passage of 10 months, the planning ministry has said.
The development spending stood at Rs448.6bn in the first 10 months (July-April) of fiscal year 2025, accounting for less than 41pc of Rs1.1 trillion revised budget allocation for the whole year.
The lack of spending suggests a large part of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) — revised down from Rs1.4tr to Rs1.1tr — would remain unspent at the end of the fiscal year in June.
The ministry’s monthly data released on Sunday showed funds given to parliamentarians were the only exception to the otherwise paltry spending.
Finance ministry pushes back date to surrender unspent funds by a month
The utilisation of funds at Rs35bn was even higher than the first revised allocation of Rs25bn for the current year.
A mechanism devised by the finance ministry for the current fiscal year dictated the government should release 15pc of the budgeted allocation of PSDP in the first quarter, followed by 20pc in the second quarter, 25pc in the third and the remaining 40pc in the last quarter.
Under the mechanism, the estimated release for PSDP by April end should be at least 73pc of the annual allocation or around Rs805bn — almost two times the actual spending.
All the 36 federal ministries, divisions and their agencies could spend only Rs339bn in 10 months.
The Planning Commission, however, claimed it had authorised Rs638bn for disbursement to federal ministries in the first 10 months in line with the finance ministry’s instructions. However, only Rs339bn could actually be spent on the ground.
The provinces and special areas, merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, saw the least spending with Rs100bn — 36pc of their annual allocation of Rs277bn.
Water Resources Division, which had the single largest allocation in PSDP at Rs170bn, could spend only Rs72.5bn, despite securing 100pc authorisation from the planning commission.
The two major corporate entities, National Highway Authority (NHA) and National Transmission & Dispatch Company (NTDC), spent only Rs109.4bn in ten months against their joint allocation of Rs255bn.
The power sector, on the other hand, utilised Rs53bn in ten months or around 55pc of Rs94.5bn annual allocation.
The climate change division spent only Rs1.5bn out of Rs5.256bn allocation.
The Planning Commission, which is actually the custodian of the development programme, could itself only spend Rs3.85bn out of the allocated Rs19bn.
The data showed at least five ministries — commerce, communications, narcotics control, religious affairs divisions and Special Investment Facilitation Council — failed to spend any money.
Early funds surrender
The finance ministry had already directed all other ministries and divisions to finalise revised estimates for the outgoing fiscal year, devise budget estimates for the upcoming year and “surrender anticipated savings” by April 30.
This was the first time that finance ministry had ordered surrendering funds sought two months before the end of the fiscal year. The move may disrupt routine operations of the public sector.
In the past, the last date for funds surrender used to be May 31 when the ministries, departments and corporations had clarity on their financing requirements for the last month of fiscal year.
The ministry said the deadline has been advanced on the directives of the Public Accounts Committee.
Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2025
