-The Planing Commission (PC) of Pakistan had released Rs 40.1 billion in the first 70 days of the current year (till September 14) against the total allocation of Rs 360 billion under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of 2012-13. The PC noted that total foreign assistance would account for Rs 100 billion of the total PSDP, while 260 billion was to be allocated from the budget.
The PC Spokesman Ishfaqullah Khan stated that foreign aid is received directly by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and the PC is only made aware of the inflow after its release for development projects. The PC had released Rs 21.2 billion for the infrastructure sector against the total budgeted allocation of Rs 200.9 billion. The social sector received Rs 17.6 billion against its total set target of Rs 146.1 billion and Rs 0.5 billion was released for other sectors against a total budget of Rs 3 billion. Similarly, Rs 0.8 billion was released to the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) against its total allocation of Rs 10 billion.
The PC is currently running 1080 projects at a total cost of Rs 2926.2 billion. For the current financial year 2012-13, Rs 873 billion has been allocated for public sector development projects, out of which Rs 350 billion has been allocated for federal development projects, Rs 513 billion for provincial governments' projects, whereas Rs 10 billion would be spent for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of Earthquake-hit areas.