The government's claim of releasing Rs 541.6 billion under the Public Sector Development Programm (PSDP) in the current fiscal year (as of May 8) is higher than the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projection of Rs 488 billion for the entire current fiscal year.
According to the IMF document uploaded on its website titled 'request for purchase under the rapid financing instrument (RFI)', the federal PSDP pre-Covid 19 was estimated at Rs 588 fiscal year 2019-20. However, the projection was revised downward by Rs 100 billion to Rs 488 billion for 2019-20.
According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Planning, the federal government has released Rs541.63 billion (77.3 percent) including Rs109.29 billion foreign aid (85 percent) for various ongoing and new development projects under the PSDP 2019-2020.
A senior official of the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives on condition of anonymity told Business Recorder that the figure of Rs 541.6 billion is authorization and not actual spending.
"The actual spending under the PSDP will hardly reach Rs 440 billion in the entire fiscal year 2019-20 as work on development projects remained suspended since mid-March 2020 due to Coronavirus outbreak," the official added.
Replying to a question, the official said that development expenditure will be slashed to Rs 440 billion against the budgeted allocation of Rs701 billion under the PSDP for 2019-20. The final figures would be compiled at the completion of fiscal year, however currently work on development projects has come to a halt due to Coronavirus outbreak and expenditure under this head would remain far below the budgeted allocation, the official added.
Joint Chief Economist Ministry of Planning and Development Rai Nasir Ali told Business Recorder that there are various reasons for less spending under the PSDP including Coronavirus outbreak, officials reluctance due to fear of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) action, low growth rate as well as revenue shortfall.
Due to Coronavirus outbreak in the country, hardly 25 percent of the development expenditures would be made in the last quarter of current fiscal year, said Ali, adding that hardly 60 percent of the total budgeted allocation of Rs 701 billion for the entire fiscal would be spent.
According to the Ministry of Planning, the federal government has released Rs541.63 billion (77.3 percent of the total budgeted) including Rs109.29 billion foreign aid (85 percent) for various ongoing and new development projects under the PSDP 2019-2020.
The government claims to have released Rs233.78 billion (76.56 per cent) including Rs15 billion foreign aid for development projects of various ministries, divisions and related departments out of Rs305.36 billion budgeted allocation.
The government claims to have released a total of Rs180.43 billion (92 per cent) including Rs88.89 billion (98 per cent) foreign aid, out of Rs90.588 billion development budget of corporations; Rs159.72 billion including Rs73.8 billion foreign aid for the projects of the National Highways Authority (NHA); and Rs20.7 billion including Rs15.07 billion foreign aid for National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC)/Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO).
The ministry claims to have released a total of Rs43.49 billion (94 percent) including Rs4.48 billion foreign aid out of Rs44.54 billion budgeted allocation for development projects of special areas; Rs26.89 billion including Rs3.15 billion foreign aid for development projects of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK); and Rs16.6 billion including Rs1.3 billion foreign aid for Gilgit-Baltistan for financial year 2019-2020.
The government noted the released of Rs9 billion including Rs1.77 billion foreign aid out of Rs11.25 billion budgeted for development projects of the National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Division.
A total of Rs30.18 billion out of budgeted Rs46.99 billion has been released for the Cabinet Division. The government claims to have released Rs38.49 billion for security enhancement against Rs53 billion budgeted allocation for financial year 2019-2020.
The Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms claims to have released Rs10.76 billion for development projects of the Railways Division against Rs15 billion budgeted allocation, Rs2.19 billion for development projects of Science and Technology Research Division, and Rs8.22 billion for National Food Security, and Research Division.
The ministry said that Rs3.67 billion has been released for development projects of the Federal Education and Professional Training Division out of Rs4.5 billion budgeted allocation, and Rs27 billion including Rs132.31 million foreign aid has been released out of Rs28.65 billion budgeted for the development projects of the Higher Education Commission.
The ministry claims to have released a total of Rs72.67 billion for Water Resources Division including Rs5.78 billion foreign and Rs301.47 million for Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority.
The government claims to have released Rs8.22 billion out of budgeted Rs11.3 billion for National Food Security and Research Division. A total of Rs7.5 billion has been released for development projects of Climate Change Division.
A total of Rs23 billion has been released out of Rs48 billion for development projects of merged areas under the 10 year Development Plan, and Rs9.86 billon against budgeted Rs24 billion for merged districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.