LAHORE, May 31: The Punjab government is talking about pitching roughly around Rs80 billion, give or take a few, for its core annual development programme (ADP) for the next fiscal beginning from July 1, up by 23 per cent from Rs65 billion set aside for the current year, a senior provincial planning & development department official has said.
Though the size of the proposed allocation for the core provincial development programme is considerably higher than the amount budgeted for the current year, it is almost 14 per cent less than Rs93 billion, the figure the provincial government had projected for its core development programme for the next year in the Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) 2006-09.
“The government has not firmed up the exact figure for its core development programme for the next financial year. But the indications so far are that the amount to be set aside for the core provincial development programme will be 10-15 per cent out of line with its size projected in the MTDF,” the P&D official told Dawn on Thursday.
Another P&D official said the core programme for the next fiscal was being kept smaller than the projected size in order to divert resources to certain mega projects like the Lahore Transit System that the government wants to launch next year.
“I can assure you that the total development allocations for the next financial year will be substantially higher than the current year’s,” the official said.
He claimed that the allocation for the provincial core development programme would be in the vicinity of Rs80-85 billion.
The government had allocated Rs88 billion - Rs65 billion for provincial core programme and Rs23 billion for special infrastructure development programme for building proposed Lahore-Sialkot Motorway and Lahore Ring Road - for development in the province.
According to the figures provided to Dawn by Punjab Finance Minister Hasnain Dareshak a few weeks ago, only 60 per cent of the funds allocated for the core programme have been utilised during the first three quarters (July 2006-March 2007) of the year. On the other hand only 6.35 per cent or Rs1.459 billion of the funds set aside for the special infrastructure projects could be utilised during the same period.
When contacted, P&D Chairman Suleman Ghani told this reporter that the size of the development programme would be announced by the chief minister at his pre-budget press conference.
Asked as to why lesser funds are being allocated for the core provincial programme than the amount projected in the MTDF, he said: “Who told you so? It is not my fault if somebody has misinformed you, and you (have chosen to) believe that.”