Infrastructure, highways, roads and bridges: Spending Declines

The rise in spending on law and order by the federal and provincial governments led to a decline in government spending on infrastructure, highways, roads and bridges. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP-II) up to second quarter of fiscal year 2017-18, uploaded by Finance Ministry on its website, stated that spending on infrastructure projects, roads, highways and bridges declined to Rs 139.057 billion during July-December 2017-18 from Rs 149.765 billion for the same period a year before.
The government spending on law and order, however, increased to Rs 175 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year from Rs 144 billion for the same period of last fiscal year.
The federal government''s expenditures on law and order increased to Rs 56 billion from Rs 49 billion, Punjab government, from Rs 41 billion to Rs 53 billion, Sindh government, from Rs 26 billion to Rs 35 billion, KP government, from Rs 17 billion to Rs 17.9 billion, whereas Balochistan government''s expenditure on law and order increased to Rs 11 billion from Rs 10 billion,
A marginal decrease in Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) disbursement was also reported for July-December 2017-18 as compared to the same period of the last fiscal year with disbursed amount declined to Rs 48.3 billion from Rs 49.7 billion.
Sources said the expenditure on social sector increased during the second quarter of the current fiscal year after Prime Minister Shaihid Khaqan Abbasi released Rs 32.6 billion earmarked for SDGs achievements in one go for the parliamentarians'' schemes.
The spending of federal and provincial governments on environment, water supply and sanitation increased to Rs 25.5 billion in the current fiscal year from Rs 22.9 billion for the same period a year before, spending on education increased to Rs 331 billion from Rs 310 billion, while spending on health increased to Rs 144 billion from Rs 111 billion.
Expenditure of the federal government on education increased to Rs 51 billion from Rs 38 billion, Punjab government, from Rs 135 billion to Rs 148 billion, Sindh government, from Rs 62 billion to Rs 71 billion, and Balochistan government spending increased from Rs 18 billion to Rs 21 billion. However, KP government''s spending on education was declined to Rs 38 billion during the two quarters of the current fiscal year from Rs 54 billion for the same period of the last fiscal year.
The spending of the federal government on health decreased to Rs 8 billion during July-December 2017-18 from Rs 12 billion for the same period of the last fiscal year. Likewise, the KPK spending came down to Rs 16 billion from Rs 18 billion while spending of Punjab government increased to Rs 84 from Rs 53 billion and Sindh government''s spending went up to Rs 28 billion from Rs 21 billion.
The government''s spending on population planning was increased to Rs 4.9 billion during the first six months of the current fiscal as opposed to Rs 3.038 billion for the same period of the last fiscal year.