Prime Minister's Advisor on Finance and Revenue, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh-led Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet is reluctant to give additional over Rs 11 billion to Pakistan Army as supplementary grant, well-informed sources in Finance Division told Business Recorder.
Defence Division stated that the Internal Security (IS) duty allowance for Army troops deployed at western border is allocated by the Ministry of Finance in addition to normal budget of defence services.
An amount of Rs 4.966 billion under the head Inter-Security duty allowance was allocated during the fiscal year 2018-19 to Army.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the amount has been completely consumed before closure of financial year. General Headquarters (GHQ) has now requested for allocation of Rs 4.966 billion on account of IS duty allowance for current fiscal year 2019-20.
Finance Division (Military Wing) did not raise any objection to provision of supplementary grant of Rs 4.966 billion for payment of Internal Security duty allowance during the current fiscal year.
Defence Division requested the ECC for approval of an additional allocation of Rs 4.966 billion through supplementary grant for IS duty allowance for army troops deployed at western border during FY 2019-20.
After discussion, the ECC directed Defence Division to resubmit the summary after consultation with Finance Division.
In another summary, Defence Division stated that the Prime Minister has approved enhancement of recurring cost of Special Security Division (North) from Rs 5.887 billion to Rs 6.210 billion. General Headquarters requested Finance Division to release annual recurring allocation on Special Security Division amounting to Rs 6.210 billion as supplementary grant.
Defence Division, sources said, got the consent of Finance Division (Military Wing) but the ECC did not give its consent to the summary and directed Defence Division to resubmit the summary after consultation with Finance Division.
During 2018-19, Defence Services had secured biggest supplementary grants of more than Rs 36 billion.
Finance Division had reported to Parliament that Rs 222 billion was approved without Parliament's approval of which the largest supplementary grant of Rs36bn was given to the defence services which spent these funds without prior approval of parliament. Of these, Rs20bn was spent on fencing and lighting of the Pak-Afghan border, Rs5bn as special duty allowance on Pakistan Army and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and Rs5.89bn recurring cost of Special Security Division for the army.
Recently, Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet ruled that the government will not approve any further supplementary grant and directed the Ministries to bring technical supplementary grants.
On October 15, 2018, Finance Division issued the procedure for additional budget through supplementary grant, etc. According to the Finance Division, all cases of supplementary grants/technical supplementary grants fall within the competence of the federal cabinet. Finance Division had also advised the administrative Secretaries/Principal Accounting Officers to seek approval of the Federal Cabinet with prior consultation in cases of supplementary grants.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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