ISLAMABAD: The Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) is yet to finalise the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for National Highway Authority (NHA) for 2024-25, as huge gap between demand and provisional Indicative Budget Ceilings (IBC) persists, well-placed sources revealed to Business Recorder.

The government had initially communicated IBC of Rs 92 billion under PSDP 2024-25 to NHA for carrying out ongoing and new projects. However, NHA demanded Rs 628 billion against about 100 ongoing and new projects.

Sources said that NHA did not submit summary to APCC as it was not possible for the Authority to prepare PSDP to fit such a narrow allocation and that is why NHA case was not considered in the committee meeting, which proposed Rs 1.22 trillion for PSDP for the next budget.

APCC and NHA are still engaged in narrowing down the gap and reach some consensus. NHA is still expecting to get around Rs 200 billion under the PSDP 2024-25, however till filing of this report no agreement was reached.

Sources said that the throw-forward of NHA reached Rs 1.7 trillion and a meager allocation in the PSDP for 2024-25 would further increase it and may result in delays in project implementation.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024