Disbursement of funds for uplift projects picks speed
The Planning Commission has speeded up disbursement of funds for development projects as it authorised spending of Rs257.17 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year - up almost 144pc against Rs106bn for the same period last year.
According to data released by the commission, it has authorised the release of Rs257.17bn for development projects as of Nov 1, 2019, that amounted to about 37pc of the full year allocation of Rs701bn.
During the corresponding period last fiscal year, the commission had allowed Rs105.46bn spending, accounting for 15.6pc of the full year allocation of Rs675bn. This coincided with an advice by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the federal and provincial governments to make maximum utilisation of development funds as stimulus to revive economic growth estimated at 2.4pc for the current year.
Under the financial management formula in vogue, the ministries, divisions and other executing agencies are required to spend 20pc each of the development allocations in first and second quarter of the fiscal year followed by 30pc each in the third and fourth quarter. In case of salaries and pensions, disbursement of funds could be allowed to go up 25pc of annual budget in each quarter.
That would mean the total releases for development projects could touch 40pc of annual allocation over the next few days against the target set for first half of the year.
This is first time in recent history that disbursements in first four months under public sector development programme (at 37pc) have come so close to 40pc target for the first quarter.
But almost 60pc of the first four month disbursements this year were grabbed by just four elements. This included Rs80bn releases for National Highway Authority, mostly implementing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, accounting for 52pc of its annual share of Rs155bn. Another major chunk of Rs26.78bn was spent on security enhancement against a total allocation of Rs32bn. That meant more than 82pc funds allocated for security enhancement through the full fiscal year already stand disbursed.
Another major chunk of Rs12.8bn was released for the development of merged tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for which the government has set an allocation of Rs72bn for the current year. Likewise, Rs30bn were provided to the water sector against an allocation of about Rs86bn.