The development budget

During the first nine months of FY 2015-16, the Punjab government utilised only around Rs189.8 billion (51.4 percent) out of a total development outlay of Rs369.1 billion provided in the annual budget. This information is available in official documents.

Out of the total utilisation only 22.3 percent went into health – that is, Rs4.9 billion out of Rs21.9 billion. In the energy sector, the provincial government has spent only Rs4 billion out of a total allocation of Rs13.4 billion (30 percent). Insiders say the funds for these sectors have been diverted to Lahore’s metro train project.

Against the provincial government’s claims of incredible development works being carried out all over Punjab, the official statistics tell a different story. The official figures obtained from the Punjab finance department show that the actual development funds released and utilised are far less than what were promised in the annual budget passed by the Punjab Assembly.

With only three months remaining till the end of the fiscal year, the provincial government has not utilised even half of the development outlay allocated for most sectors – except roads and urban development.

Till the end of March this year, the provincial finance department released only Rs254 billion (68.8 percent) of the total amount of Rs369.1 billion allocated for development projects in the annual budget. At the time of the budget’s approval, it was claimed that this development allocation was the highest ever in Punjab’s fiscal history.

Even the released amount for development schemes has not been fully utilised so far. According to a civil servant, funds for some sectors such as health and education are released towards the end of the year so that they cannot be used.

Moreover, an investigation shows that the Punjab government has diverted funds meant for education, health, population welfare, environment, police and the energy sector etc to the Orange Line project in Lahore.

According to official figures, in the first nine months of the fiscal year, the Punjab government has spent Rs34 billion on the Orange Line rail project and rapid bus transport system in Multan against a budgetary allocation of Rs28 billion. The Rs15 billion loan taken from the Bank of Punjab from the metro train project is in addition to this. EXIM Bank of China released the first tranche – of only Rs5 billion out of Rs170 billion – only this month.

At the end of March this year, the funds used to build roads stood at 85 percent of the total budgetary allocation – that is, Rs57 billion out of Rs66.9 billion. Against this, the fund utilisation is 17.9 percent for higher education – Rs2.1 billion out of Rs11.7 billion. And 43.2 percent for school education – Rs8.5 billion out of a total allocation of Rs19.7 billion.

So far, the government has spent only a small amount of Rs194 million (23.8 percent of the total allocation) on population welfare schemes as against the original allocation of Rs814 million.

The funds for women’s development that have been utilised stand at merely Rs46 million from the total allocated amount of Rs500 million – nearly 9.2 percent of the total allocation.

A paltry amount of Rs50 million was allocated for environment-related development projects but the actual utilisation during these nine months has been Rs1.8 million – around 3.6 percent of the total.

In the budget, the government had promised Rs610 million for labour and human resource development. But so far, it has spent Rs52.8 million or 8.6 percent of the total allocated amount.

For the last eight years, the PML-N government has been showing high allocations for different social development sectors when presenting the budget in the Punjab Assembly. But the government’s expenditure on education, health, energy etc has in reality been far less than the budgetary allocations.

Email: adnanadilzaidi@gmail. com