Ministries are paying no heed to the Prime Ministers clear-cut instructions to cut down their non-development expenditures that have gone up to Rs100 billion during the current fiscal year with 22 percent increase as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year. Dr Hafiz Pasha, Head of the Planning Commission panel of economists stated this here on Wednesday.
Delivering A R Kemal memorial lecture here at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Pasha said despite instructions of the Prime Minister, ministries have not reduced their expenditures.
Though the Prime Minister Secretariat expenditures decreased by almost 40 percent, ministries instead of reducing their current expenditures have slashed development expenditures. Pasha said that the non-salary expenditures went up to Rs 100 billion, showing an increase of 22 percent during the current fiscal year.
He said that the difference between the strategy recommended by the panel of economists and the programme approved by the IMF was that the panel recommended continuing Research and Development support to textile sector while the IMF asked for implementation of free exchange rate regime.