Upcoming budget: Govt to continue to give lawmakers funds for uplift spending

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to continue bloc allocation for parliamentarians under the Sustainable Development Goals Achievement Program (SAP) in the Budget 2025-26.

An amount of Rs50 billion has been allocated in the revised budgetary estimates for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Achievement Program (SAP) and Rs35 billion has been utilized out of the total authorization of Rs48 billion in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.

Initially, the SAP allocation was Rs72 billion, but it was revised downward to Rs50 billion for the current fiscal year. “In case of decreased ceiling for development in the upcoming budget 2025-26, the government will freeze the SDGs Achievement Program for Parliamentarians at the existing level of Rs50 billion,” said official sources.

The budget-makers are finding it really hard to restrict the expenditure side while formulating the upcoming budget under the IMF conditions. The IMF, under its budgetary framework, has listed conditions for slashing down expenditure to the tune of Rs1.6 trillion or 1.3 percent of GDP in the next budget. “There is no fiscal space available to curtail unbridled expenditure except the development budget for the next fiscal year,” top official sources confirmed to The News on Monday.

The Ministry of Finance has communicated the Indicative Budget Ceiling (IBC) of Rs921 billion for the next development budget under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP), which was below the revised allocation of Rs1100 billion for the current fiscal year.

On the eve of the last budget, the PSDP allocation was envisaged at Rs1400 billion, which was revised downward, and finally, the allocation of Rs1100 billion was envisaged. Now the Planning Ministry has granted authorization of Rs894 billion in the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year, and utilization of funds stood at Rs448 billion.

Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal told this reporter on Monday that the PSDP size was not finalized yet, and they were still guessing about the exact budget ceiling for the next financial year.

“If there is no increase in the development budget ceiling, then the SAP program ceiling will freeze at the existing levels,” he added. The Priorities Committee, comprising ministries/divisions, has finalized a number of development schemes of around 1300 with the size of Rs3 trillion for the Budget 2025-26, and keeping in view the IMF program conditions, the size of the PSDP so far stood at Rs921 billion.

The total number of PSDP projects stood at 1071 in the current fiscal year, with a total throw-forward of Rs10 trillion. The planning ministry has been working to delete around 200 development projects from the PSDP list, and around 170 to 180 schemes are expected to be completed by the end of June 2025.