Question hour: Finance Ministry briefs NA on subsidies, grants, loans provided to various sectors, entities

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Finance told the National Assembly that the federal government has provided total subsidies amounting to Rs237.310 billion to various sectors/entities during the first six months of current Fiscal Year 2024-25.

During the Question-Hour in the National Assembly, the Finance Ministry also provided the details of the grants and loans provided to different government entities during the first six months of the current fiscal year 2024-25, according to which Rs237.310 billion were subsidies, Rs644.17 billion grants and Rs61.51 billion loans.

Giving the breakup of subsidies, the Finance Ministry stated that major chunk of subsidy out of the total subsidy of Rs237.310 billion was given to power sector i.e. Rs218.313 billion, Rs2.4 billion was given to PASSCO, Rs3.18 billion as wheat subsidy (Gilgit Baltistan), Rs6.9 billion as Re-finance facility and Rs5.79 billion as housing finance.

The Finance Ministry also presented the details of grants that were given to different government entities during the six months of the current fiscal year 2024-25. According to the total grants of Rs644.17 billion given, Rs232.25 billion was given to BISP, Rs22.59 billion was given to HEC, Rs26.66 to railways, Rs3.14 billion to Baitul Mal and Rs359.53 billion to misc/others.

The total loans of Rs61.51 billion were given to government entities and out of its Rs48.22 billion was given to NHA, Rs7.48 billion to NTDC, Rs5.5 billion to Gencos and Rs0.21 million to misc.