KARACHI, Aug 5: A spokesman of the Planning and Development Division has termed as pure conjecture and without any basis the report in the Daily Dawn of 5th August, 2003 that the PSDP allocation of Rs160 billion for 2003-04 will not be fully utilized. The financial year has barely begun and it is premature to speculate on the outcome of the development spending.

The spokesman also termed as incorrect that releases and utilization in 2002-03 were low. While final figures for 2002-03 have yet to come in, it is expected that the utilization in the year will be higher than that of 2001-02 when releases for major projects, comprising 85pc of the PSDP, stood at 90pc of the allocations while utilization was 88pc. The utilization in 2002-03 is expected to improve because of closer monitoring and because a number of major projects started in 2001-02 gained momentum during 2002-03.

Our Staff Reporter says: The pace of utilization of fund was based on a document of the Planning and Development Division. According to this document, in nine months of the last fiscal year, only 49pc of allocated funds for federal government funded projects were utilized.