Finance Division has claimed that civil government expenditure has been reduced by Rs 9 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (2019-20) as compared to the same period of the last fiscal year (2018-19).

Sources said the expenditure of civil government for the first quarter of fiscal year (2019-20) has shown the squeeze of Rs 9 billion as compared to the first quarter of fiscal year 2018-19.

They added that efforts are under way to make the grants and subsidies more effective through targeted dispensation. The development expenditure for the current fiscal year would be impact-based infrastructure spending in the neglected domains of power sector connectivity, renewable energy as well as regional connectivity and other avenues.

However, the recommendations to prioritize PSDP spending for completion of ongoing projects would be further implemented during the current and next financial years, and in order to revamp the entire Public Financial Management System, Finance Division presented Public Finance Management (PFM) law which has been approved and enacted.

This law has put multiple controls and monitoring mechanisms on federal spending units, Cabinet and the Parliament. The committee under the PFM Act will oversee implementation and secondary legislation has been notified. Finance Division along with other stakeholders is working on introduction of pre-audit and internal audit system within ministries.

Financing accounting and budgeting system (FABs) - IT enabler of financial transactions - is under process of up-gradation to introduce asset accounting, projects and program accounting, commitment accounting and payroll management within the financial system of federal government.

Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy and framework have been approved and recently, Fiscal Advisory Department of IMF extended technical facilitation to achieve structured implementation of TSA which primarily revolves around efficient cash management, treasury management and debt management.

Finance Division is also involved in the working of the Task Force on Restructuring of the federal government where, currently, realignment of federal entities is under way, leading to merger, liquidation and retention of selected entities. This entire exercise is expected to achieve better financial discipline apart from improving service delivery, sources added.