PSDP being reprioritised

After diverting Rs 5 billion from the annual budgetary allocations for rescue and relief work in quake-hit areas, the government has also undertaken ''Reprioritisation'' of the current Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the purpose.
A senior official of the finance ministry, who is the part of the committee engaged in review of the PSDP 2005-06, told Business Recorder on Thursday that the reprioritisation is being done to exactly evaluate financial sources available for the current fiscal year''s development programme and what portion of it could be allocated for rehabilitation of the quake-affected people and reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure in the NWFP and Azad Kashmir.
He said that on the directions of the Prime Minister, Planning Commission and ministry of finance (MoF) were actively engaged in reprioritisation process, and added that the ministry officials who have been assigned the task of review and reprioritisation are meeting on daily basis to complete the job as early as possible.
The government had announced Rs 272 billion PSDP for the current fiscal year and some of its portion had already been disbursed to the concerned department for development projects.
According to the official, besides reprioritisation of the current PSDP, the government is also reviewing allocations made in the previous budget for non-development expenditures.
The official said, "We are also looking into the allocations made in the previous budget for non-development expenditures to have maximum funds for development and reconstruction in quake-hit areas."
The policymakers believe that some money could also be diverted from the current account for the rehabilitation and reconstruction work. Nevertheless, the account is a big head from where the government meets its day-to-day expenditures, besides fulfilling commitment for debt repayment.
The ministry official added, "After the earthquake the government is facing a different situation altogether and now its first priority is to divert maximum funds for rehabilitation and reconstruction work to have basic infrastructure such as roads in the affected areas."
The government is also giving top priority to reconstructing buildings for schools, hospitals and the civil administration, and PSDP reprioritisation is the first choice for allocation of funds for this work, he said.