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Infrastructure spending up 44 percent in July-Dec

By Our Correspondent
February 22, 2018

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has disbursed 44 percent more funds for infrastructure sector during July-December 2017-18 compared to the same period in the last fiscal, an official said on Wednesday.

“A total amount of Rs315.013 billion was released for the infrastructure projects in the period under review against Rs218.208 billion a year before,” Asim Khan, a spokesman for ministry of planning development and reforms, said in an official release.

“Funds were issued for projects in all sectors i.e., energy, water, transport & communications, physical planning & housing, health & population, education, governance, science & information technology, special areas, environment, youth, health etc.”

The statement said the total of Rs417,619 million was released under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in the first six month of the current fiscal year compared to Rs306,198 million last year, up 36.4 percent year-on-year.

The spokesman added that Rs26,626 million were released for the social sector in the first half of this fiscal, whereas Rs24,540 million were disbursed during the same period a year ago, which translated into an increase of 8.5 percent year-on-year.

“The social sector projects were related to health, population welfare, education & training, higher education, CSTY, environment, manpower & employment, mass media, rural development, and social welfare,” Khan said.

Khan said Rs5,059 million was released for science and information technology sector.

Again Rs3,986 million were released during the first half of the last year. In the Governance section, Rs 6,356 million have been released compared to Rs3,492 million released in the same period of the previous year.

The spokesman further emphasised that for the projects in special areas (Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas) sector, Rs30,220 million were discharged this year against Rs24,554 million released in 2016-17, which was 23 percent higher year-on-year.

He said the ministry was regularly holding meetings of development forum for reviewing the status of funds releases and approving new and revised scheme in order to facilitate execution.

“Under the directions of the planning minister all-out support is being provided to the executing organisations to complete projects for the wellbeing of the people in different walks of life,” Khan said.

It must be noted that the government has released over Rs456 billion under its PSDP 2017-18 for various ongoing and new schemes against the total allocations of Rs1,001 billion.

Data released by the ministry of planning last month revealed the released funds include Rs110.24 billion for federal ministries and Rs33.141 billion for special areas.

Out of these allocations, the government has released Rs202.8 billion for the National Highway Authority (NHA) for which Rs326.25 billion have been allocated for 2017-18, whereas Rs23.9 billion were released to WAPDA (Power) out of its allowed budget of Rs64.9 billion for this fiscal year.

The government also released Rs5.276 billion to communication division (other than NHA) which has a total share of Rs21.6 billion. Railways division received Rs15.247 billion out of its total allocation of Rs42.9 billion, whereas aviation division received Rs1.87 billion out of its total allocation of Rs4.348 billion.

An amount of Rs11.628 billion has also been released for various development projects of Higher Education Commission from its total allowance of Rs35.662 billion, while Rs3.99 billion have been released for the Atomic Energy Commission.

Water and power division (water sector) received Rs13.18 billion out of Rs36.75 billion.

The government also released Rs8.1 billion for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Division, for which an amount of Rs48.701 billion was allocated in the federal PSDP budget, while Rs201 million was released for Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority out of its total share of Rs321.53 million.

The finance division received Rs10.02 billion from its total allocations of Rs25.051 billion and the climate change division received Rs326 million out of Rs815 million for the current year.