Dr Hafeez A. Pasha has written an article published in Business Recorder dated 16-01-2018 regarding public spending on Pro-Poor expenditure which has been released by PRSP Secretariat, Ministry of Finance. The figures and data which the writer has reported are not correct. Finance Division offers its comment in this regard as follows:
The article reveals that pro-poor expenditure in 2016-17 is estimated at 37 percent of overall public expenditure and equivalent to 7.8 percent of GDP as compared to 9 percent of the GDP in 2012-13, which shows that Pro Poor expenditures have been "crowded out" by other major public expenditures like debt servicing and defense. The author has further stated that that PRSP expenditure stood at Rs 2.5 trillion in FY2016/17. The growth rate over the period was 9 percent, the share of income transfers and subsidies accounted for a share of 27 percent in 2016/17 and federal share is approximately 25 percent and consists mostly of outlays on the BISP and subsidies. The author has mentioned that total pro poor spending in 2016/17 is estimated at 37 percent of overall public expenditure and also the share of current expenditure is over 80 percent and only 20 percent is being devoted to development expenditures.
In this regard, the correct figure of total PRSP expenditures was recorded at Rs 3.03 trillion during FY2016/17 as reported by the PRSP Secretariat and not Rs 2.5 trillion as reported in the article. The PRSP expenditures increased by 12.36 percent from Rs 2.7 trillion in FY2015/16 to Rs 3.03 trillion in FY2016/17. Similarly, the share of pro-poor spending in overall public expenditure is estimated at 44.6 percent instead of 37 percent as mentioned by the author.
With regard to total PRSP expenditures as percentage of GDP during FY2016/17, it stood at 9.5 percent instead of 7.8 percent as stated by the author. Thus, the claim that PRSP expenditure as percentage of GDP has declined since FY2012/13 is not correct.