38pc uplift budget used in nine months

P&D Dept secretary says use of funds gradually
gains momentum in last quarter; work on Orange Train suspended over court proceedings

LAHORE

The Punjab government has utilised only 38 percent Rs207.3 billion of total development budget of Rs550 billion in the first nine months of the ongoing fiscal year 2016-17 while environment department has been unable to spend a single penny from its allocated budget and energy department consumed only 19 percent.

According to the official utilisation report of the nine months available with The News, the Punjab government has allocated Rs550 billion for the development in the province while the planning and development department has approved Rs388 billion scheme during the first three quarters and finance department has released Rs346 billion against it. However, the all provincial departments were able to utilise only Rs204.3 billion during the first nine months of the fiscal year 2016-17.

The literacy department has led the rally by utilising 83 percent, Rs1.245 billion against the total allocated budget of Rs1.88 billion. The school education department utilised 38 percent, Rs16 billion against revised allocation Rs41.75 billion while the original budget estimation was Rs47.76 billion as the government has diverted the budget to other ‘priority’ areas. Higher education department has utilised 60 percent, Rs12.11 billion against the revised allocation of Rs20.224 billion while the original allocation was Rs17.218 billion. Despite the increase in budget allocation utilisation has not reached original allocation.

Budget allocation for special education was Rs962 million while it has utilised only Rs222 million, 23 percent of allocated resources. The original budgetary allocation of youth affairs, sports, archeology and tourism department was Rs6.225 billion which increased to Rs6.69 billion while only Rs1.792 billion, 27 percent was utilised in the first three quarters.

Similarly, the sports budget was increased to Rs5.465 billion while utilisation stood at Rs1.378 billion, 25 percent while youth affairs – the priority of the government - has been able to spend only 2 percent of the allocated Rs500 million development budget.

The total revised allocation of specialised healthcare department was Rs27.967 billion from original budgetary allocation of Rs24.5 billion was utilised Rs7.82 billion, 28 percent of the budget. Similarly, primary and secondary health budget was increased by more than Rs4 billion in revised allocation fixing at Rs22.905 billion from Rs18 billion while only Rs6.309 billion, 28 percent was utilised.

The total allocation of the housing, urban development and public health engineering department (HUD PHED) was Rs62.7 billion downward revised to Rs56.429 billion while Rs23.731 billion, 56 percent was utilised. Out of this, major utilisation was made on water supply and sanitation of Rs15.88 billion, followed by urban development Rs7.84 billion and planning and development Rs5.9 billion.

The revised budgetary allocation of the communication and works which includes roads, public buildings, irrigation, energy, agriculture, and cooperatives increased by almost Rs24 billion raising to Rs114.49 billion from Rs90.8 billion while Rs61.49, 54 percent utilised. Out of which, Roads sector utilised Rs53.89 billion, followed by irrigation Rs15.11 billion, public buildings Rs7.6 billion, agriculture Rs4.16 billion and energy only Rs1.697 billion.

The budgetary allocations of forestry, wildlife and fisheries department were Rs3.69 billion downward revised to Rs3.65 billion and Rs1.205 billion, 33 percent utilised. The downward revised allocation of livestock and dairy development department was Rs8.669 billion and Rs5.226 billion, 60 percent was utilised.

The industry department upward revised budgetary allocation was Rs13.53 billion, while Rs9.316 billion, 69 percent utilised. The total revised budgetary allocation of the transport department was Rs91.995 billion, while only Rs13.729 billion, 15 percent was utilised in the first three quarters.

The total downward revised budgetary allocations of the special programme/initiatives was Rs21.5 billion from Rs52 billion, while Rs7.491 billion, 35 percent utilised in nine months. The total development budget allocations for district/TMA development programmes was Rs15 billion, while Rs7.491 billion, 50 percent utilised in the three quarters.

The budgetary allocations of governance and Information and Technology were Rs13.507 billion, while Rs5.184 billion, only 38 percent utilised in the first nine months.

Secretary Planning and Development Department Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that utilisation of the development funds gradually gains momentum and the traditionally highest utilisation observed in the last quarter of the every fiscal year. So would be the situation this year too, he said, adding that it is expected that the total utilisation would reach Rs350 billion by the end of this fiscal year in June.

Giving reason of slow utilisation of development budget, Iftikhar mentioned that Rs85 billion development budget utilisation on orange line metro train is slow which is major setback to utilisation. The work on the orange line metro train is suspended due to court proceedings while the government is expecting verdict on it. Once the court gives decision, the utilisation on the project will gain while the delay in the execution in the project would also be covered with rapid progress to recover the time loss, he said.

Iftikhar disclosed that last fiscal year fourth quarter utilisation was Rs126 billion; so this year it could be more than this amount. Furthermore, until April 2016, the utilisation was Rs190 billion which is Rs207 billion this year. This shows the utilisation is not as slow as it looks like.