Public Sector Development Programme: additional Rs 46 billion released by caretakers in June

An additional Rs 46 billion was released by the caretakers in June 2018 under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) while the Abbasi-led administration had left only Rs 8.3 billion for disbursement under PSDP till end of fiscal year on 30 June 2018.
The budget document 2018-19 limited PSDP for 2017-18 to Rs 750 billion (instead of the budgeted Rs 1.1 trillion) with the Abbasi-led administration disbursing Rs 741.6 billion by May 31, the last day of its tenure, with only Rs 8.3 billion left for the rest of the fiscal year.
Data routinely updated by the Planning, Development and Reforms Ministry revealed that in June, after the caretakers took over the reins of government, Rs 46 billion was released in June under PSDP.
According to data uploaded on the Ministry's website the following disbursements were made in June (which were not earmarked in the revised estimates of PSDP in budget 2018-19): (i) special federal development programme was disbursed Rs 28.3 billion, (ii) Prime Minister's Youth and Hunarmand programme was disbursed Rs 13.7 billion and (iii) Prime Minister Global SDGs and community development programme was disbursed Rs 30 billion from the downward revised allocation in the budget 2018-19 of Rs 21.7 billion.
There was some readjusted in allocations in June for projects under several ministries/divisions /corporations including: (i) Communication Division other than NHA allocation was slashed to Rs 8.66 billion from revised target of Rs 13.2 billion for 2017-18, (ii) disbursement for National Highways Authority (NHA) was increased to Rs 341 billion against he revised target of Rs 325 billion; (iii) Power Division disbursement was reduced to Rs 47.5 billion from revised target of Rs 84.9 billion, (iv) releases for Water Sector reduced to Rs 33. 96 billion from Rs 35.7 billion; (v) allocation for Railways Division slashed to Rs 19.3 billion from revised estimate of Rs 22.02 billion, (vi) disbursement for petroleum Division was slashed to Rs 464 million from Rs 16.52 billion, and (vii) PSDP release for National Health Services projects was slashed to Rs 18.8 billion from Rs 28 billion.
An official of Ministry of Finance told Business Recorder that the increase in disbursement has compounded the problem of fiscal deficit that the caretaker government is struggling to limit to 7 percent of the GDP.
When asked why did the caretaker government release funds that were Rs 46 billion in excess of what the revised budget for 2017-18 had stipulated the official stated that all disbursements under PSDP were made by the elected PML-N government as the caretaker government did not have the mandate to approve any new project or issue any supplementary grants and was bound to release funds for the projects as approved by the previous parliament.