ISLAMABAD: The provinces’ development spending under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) during the first nine months of the current fiscal year increased by 23 percent compared to the same period of the last fiscal year.

According to the Finance Ministry’s data, the PSDP expenditure by Sindh and Balochistan provinces was significantly more compared to the remaining two provinces – Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The overall provincial PSDP expenditure was Rs877.945 billion during the first nine months (July-March 2023-24) of the current fiscal year against Rs721 billion for the same period a year before with the highest increase in PSDP spending of 108 percent by the Sindh province.

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As per official data, the development spending by the Sindh province has been Rs310,787 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, up by 108.5 percent over Rs149 billion for the same period of last fiscal year, the development spending by the Balochistan province also increased by 26 percent to Rs92 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year from Rs73 billion for the same period of the last fiscal year.

However, the development spending by the Punjab province decreased by four percent to Rs377.742 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year from Rs393 billion for the same period of last fiscal year.

The development spending by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was Rs106.559 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year from Rs105 billion for the same period a year before, showing an increase of 0.95 percent.

Sources in the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiative said the provincial governments were requested for sharing the information regarding annual development plans (ADPs) including sectoral break-up data regarding respective ADPs for budget estimates 2024.

They added that only Punjab and Sindh have provided details with an estimated ADP of Rs700 billion by Punjab and Rs763 billion by Sindh for the next fiscal year.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024

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