ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Secretary Syed Zafar Ali said that a total of Rs371 billion has been authorised till date (February 8) for development projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2022-23 against the total budgetary allocation of Rs727 billion.
While in a conversation with a group of journalists on Wednesday, the secretary said that there is a total of Rs311 billion local component and Rs60 billion foreign aid out of Rs371billion authorisation.
He said that a total of Rs207 billion in expenditures were made including Rs147billion local component and Rs60billion foreign aid. He said that 22 percent budget allocation fund has been utilised so far.
Answering a question about aid committed by the countries at Geneva conference, the secretary said that as many as 13 early harvesting development projects of $3 billion relating to flood-affected areas have been approved and their transaction of the fund would be started soon. He said that we are also working on the second phase to finalise the development projects. “We are trying to complete the second phase as soon as possible, so its transaction can be started in March,” he said.
He said that at the donor conference, the foreign countries pledged $10.9 billion for development projects in flood-affected areas. He said that this amount would be expended in three years in various phases of development projects. In the first phase, we have finalised 13 development projects at the cost of $3 billion for the first year, he said.
He said that if the project is related to a province then it will share 50 percent of its own resources (local component) and the same would apply to the federal government-related projects. He said that the pledged amount of foreign countries would be transferred to the provinces with the same ratio as the damage caused by the flood.
He said that Sindh province has lost $8 billion while Balochistan faced a loss of $2.5 billion while the other provinces have lost $750 million due to the flood.
The planning secretary said that in the first transaction, a total of $500 million would be given to Sindh and $155 million to Balochistan for the construction of houses for the flood-affected people.
He said that 0.4 million houses would be constructed and there would be third-party validation. He said that $500 million would be given to Sindh and $400 million to Balochistan in the first phase for the construction of houses for the flood victims.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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