Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Federal government is hell bent upon favouring Punjab amid the reports that it has been proposed to allocate over Rs 0.1 trillion for two electricity projects of Punjab in the upcoming development budget for fiscal year 2016-17 and Rs 410 million for 4 different projects of Balochistan province while nothing has been earmarked for Sindh and KPK.

According to documents available with Daily Times, Federal Government has planned to favour Punjab in development budget for the year 2016-17 and there is proposal of earmarking over 0.145 trillion for two LNG projects in the development budget of next fiscal year. Rs 53.96 billion have been allocated for 1200 megawatt Balloki Power plant and Rs 50.59 billion for 1200 megawatt Bahadur Shah project.

The documents said that Balloki project would be completed at the cost of Rs 92 billion on January, 31, 2018 and a sum of Rs 22.50 billion were earmarked for this project in the budget for the current financial year 2015-16. Rs 14 billion have been released so for out of allocated amount. 15 percent work on this project has been completed.

According to PC-1 of Bahadur Shah LNG project it would be completed at the cost of Rs 98 billion on January, 9, 2018. During the current fiscal year 2015-16 a sum of Rs 21.97 billion have been released for this project so far. 12 percent work has been completed on this project.

It has been proposed to allocate only Rs 410 million for 4 energy projects in Balochistan. Rs 200 million have been proposed to be allocated for 132 KV project in Gwadar Port, Rs 200 millions for electricity project in Dera Bugti and Rs 10 million for two other projects in Gwadar.

The documents disclosed that KPK and Sindh have been completely overlooked in the budget in perspective of energy projects in the upcoming budget.