ISLAMABAD: Government has released only Rs 482.3 billion out of total funds amounting to Rs 700 billion allocated for development projects in the budget for the current financial year 2015-16.
Owing to less provision of funds, the cost of construction of these uplift projects is likely to increase manifold and it is the people who will have to bear the brunt of additional cost in the form of whopping taxes.
Government has released Rs 156.7 billion out of total funds of Rs 209.8 billion allocated for federal ministries and divisions, Rs 176.6 billion out of Rs 273.5 billion allocated for NHA, WAPDA, Rs 42.3 billion out of total funds of Rs 42.9 billion allocated for special areas, Rs 65 billion out of total funds of Rs 100 billion for special development programmes for TDPs and Rs 13.1 billion out of total Rs 20 billion for Prime Minister’s Youth Programme.
However, the entire funds of Rs 20 billion earmarked for Pakistan Millennium Development Goals Programme and Rs 7 billion for ERRA were released. However, Rs 26.8 billion allocated for Federal Development Program could not be released.
According to details available with Daily Times, government had allocated Rs 553.8 billion and foreign aid amounting to Rs 146.83 billion for development projects in the budget for the fiscal year 2015-16 but government has spent only Rs 482.3 billion which constitutes 68 percent of the total budgetary allocation.
The government has issued Rs 140.3 billion out of total allocation of Rs 187.9 billion which were reserved for the ministries and divisions, whereas out of foreign aid of Rs 21.9 billion , only Rs 16.4 billion could be issued.
For the Corporations government has issued Rs 117.7 billion out of total earmarked Rs153.4 billion and in the head of foreign aid some Rs 58.9 billion were released, where the allocation for the year was Rs 120.1 billion.
Similarly for the special areas government allocated Rs 41.7 billon but the releases for the fiscal year were Rs 40.6 billion. Government has issued full amount of Rs 20 billion which were reserved for Pakistan Millennium Goal Project. On the other hand government could not issue even a single penny out of allocated amount of Rs 26.8 billion for the federal development programme.
The government allocated Rs 100 billion for the development programme for temporary displaced persons (TDPs) but only Rs 65 billion were issued. The government reserved the amount of Rs 20 billion for Prime Minister Youth Programme in the financial year 2015-16 but by the end of 11 months, government issued Rs 13.1 billion.
It is to pertinent to mention here that during the current fiscal year government of Pakistan allocated Rs 553.8 billion excluding foreign grants of Rs 146.3 billion for the development funds. However, the government released Rs 400.7 billion and Rs 81.6 billion on account of foreign grants.
Some Rs 700 billion were earmarked for the Public Sector Development Projects (PSDP) out of which just 68 percent were utilized during ongoing fiscal year.
The delay in the completion of the development projects caused the increase in its total cost resulted putting extra load on people by paying additional taxes.