The Khan led administration intends to decrease reliance on foreign assistance to meet the allocation for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) by 10 percent (April budget's projected estimate of Rs 160.5 billion to September's projection of Rs 144 billion) while budget support would decline by 17 percent (April budget's projected allocation of Rs639,496 million to September's Rs 530,695 million), according to the uploaded data on the Planning Ministry website.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) slashed PSDP from Rs800 billion earmarked in the April 2018 budget for the current fiscal year to Rs675 billion as indicated in revised PSDP. Asad Umer while presenting the supplementary (amendment) finance bill 2018 had stated that PSDP would be slashed from Rs 1 trillion rupees to Rs725 billion (though the April budget had envisaged 250 billion rupees self financing by corporation/authorities) - an over estimation that has been rectified on the Planning Ministry's website which has further rationalised the total PSDP allocation to Rs675 billion (instead of Rs725 billion).
When contacted, Adviser Development Budget of Planning Commission Asif Sheikh told Business Reorder that the PSDP amount is Rs725 billion as announced by the Finance Minister; and added that the Ministry of Finance would provide Rs675 billion through budgetary resources while Finance Minister Asad Umar has assured the Planning Commission that Rs 50 billion would be made available through Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Built-Operate and Transfer (BOT). No ongoing scheme has been scrapped, Sheikh further stated.
Sources revealed to this correspondent that 350 development schemes including 341 un-approved projects at a total cost of Rs 2 trillion and 9 approved projects but with zero utilisation, have been scrapped. PSDP utilisation stood at Rs661 billion in the last budget because of capacity constraints, sources added.
The following decisions were taken in the September PSDP compared to the April budgeted allocation for PSDP 2018-19: (i) 25 billion was slashed from National Highway Authority (NHA) by revising its development budget from Rs 210 billion to 185.2 billion; 4 on-going development projects and 71 new schemes of NHA were eliminated; (ii) Rs 10 billion was cut from the budget of Capital Administration and Development Division by revising its development budget from Rs 13.9 billion to Rs 3.9 billion; one on-going scheme and 24 new schemes of capital Administration and Development Division were abolished; (iii) Rs 5 billion was cut from the April allocation for Higher Education Commission - from Rs 35.83 billion to 30.9 billion; (iv) Aviation Division received a reduced allocation from Rs 4.7 billion to Rs 3.65 billion; (v) Cabinet Division witnessed a reduction in its allocation from Rs 13.9 billion to Rs 3.92 billion; (vi) Finance Division from April's Rs 15.9 billion to September's Rs 12.3 billion; (vii) National History and Literary Heritage Division would receive a lower amount of Rs 168.2 million from Rs 550.59 million; and (viii) Petroleum Division is budgeted to receive Rs 463.175 million from April's projection of Rs 943.175 million.
The government slashed Rs 14.4 billion from National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination Division and the development budget of Railway Division has been revised downward from Rs 34.4 billion to Rs 28 billion.
Talking about the September cut in the PSDP, former Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms and PML-N Leader Ahsan Iqbal said that the reduction in development expenditure would leave over 400,000 people jobless. He said that "we raised this issue in Parliament and urged the PTI government to withdraw the decision to slash PSDP-2018-19;" and claimed that PML-N government had increased PSDP from Rs 300 billion to Rs800 billion during its tenure. Iqbal lamented that the PTI government has shelved water schemes costing millions of rupees in Islamabad and 'this will impact the poor adversely' he warned. He said that the PML-N government had allocated Rs 23.5 billion budget for Diamer-Bhasha Dam but the PTI government despite its tall claims has not increased this amount by even a single penny. Iqbal further stated that the government had not yet clarified whether it will procure foreign loans or not.
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