Subsidies increase by 226.31pc to Rs682b

ISLAMABAD: The government has increased the allocation in the head of subsidy by 226.31 percent for various sectors for the next budgetary year, to Rs682 billion from Rs209 billion allocated for the outgoing fiscal.

For the power sector, the allocation of subsidy has increased by 329.24 percent to Rs596 billion from Rs139.5 billion. Out of Rs596 billion, the amount of Rs245 billion has been allocated as subsidy for WAPDA/PEPCO, up by 90 percent if compared with subsidy of Rs129 billion earmarked for the outgoing financial year. An amount of Rs85 billion has been earmarked as subsidy for K Electric and Rs266 billion have been kept for PHPL and IPPs in the next financial year 2021-22.

And for the petroleum sector, the subsidy has increased by 100 percent to Rs20 billion for 2021-22 from Rs10 billion in 2020-21. However, the volume of subsidy for PASSCO remained stagnant at Rs7 billion.

For the Utility Stores Corporation, the amount of subsidy has increased by 100 percent to Rs6 billion from Rs3 billion. And for wheat subsidy to Gilgit Baltistan, the amount in the head of subsidy has increased to Rs8 billion from Rs6 billion.

However, for Metro Bus, the volume of subsidy has decreased by 100 percent from Rs2 billion to Rs1 billion. For the Naya Pakistan Housing Authority, the subsidy remained constant at Rs30 billion. Under the head of mark-up subsidy for Naya Pakistan, the amount stands at Rs3 billion.