ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry has spent over Rs 89 billion on 213 projects in four major sectors including Water, Health, Education and electricity under public sector development program (PSDP) with total cost of 1978 billion in last five years.
Whereas, an amount of Rs 525 billion, Rs 630 billion, Rs 760 billion and Rs 900 billion will be spent on development projects in next four consecutive fiscal year i.e 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively” a well placed source at Finance Ministry shared figures with Customs Today on Wednesday.
The source said that Rs 14 billion were spent on 49 water related projects (irrigation, dams and water supply) which had total cost of Rs 177 billion in water sector including. “Similarly, Rs 62 billion had been spent on 29 electricity related projects, generation and distribution while total cost of these projects was 1659 billion as well as an amount of Rs 3 billion were spent on 24 projects related to health while total cost of these projects was Rs 41 billiom“ the source said adding that Rs 10 billion were spent on 111 projects related to education whereas total tune of cost of these projects was Rs 101billion.
The source also revealed that although the subject of health and education had been devolved to the provinces under 18th Constitutional Amendment, however, Federal Government continued financing of the vertical programs of health, population and programs of higher education and trainings through Federal PSDP as per decision of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) made in April 2011.
The source said that the 11th Five Year Plan was under formulation; however the Finance Ministry had specified allocations for various sectors under federal development program (PSDP) for next four years had also been specified. “Rs 333 billion for infrastructure, Rs 57 social sector development, Rs Five billion for Governance, Rs six billion for Science and Technology, Rs 86 billion for balanced regional development, Rs three billion for production and Rs 35 billion have been allocated for other miscellaneous sectors, out of total volume of Rs 525 billion allocation made for the current (2014-15) fiscal year.” the source added.
Similarly, the source said that out of total volume of Rs 630 billion proposed SPDP for upcoming fiscal year 2015-16, an amount of Rs 630 billion had been allocated for infrastructure, Rs 47 billion for social sector development, Rs eight billion for governance, Rs 12 billion for Science and Technology, Rs 82 billion for balanced regional development, Rs three billion for production and Rs 15 billion for miscellaneous sectors.
The source said that for the fiscal year 2016-17, total allocation for PSDP was Rs 760 billion and out of this amount Rs 581 billion had been allocated for infrastructure development, Rs 58 billion for social sector development, Rs nine billion for governance, Rs 13 billion for science and technology, Rs 83 billion for balanced regional development and Rs six billion for production as well as Rs ten billion for miscellaneous sectors.
“Out of total PSDP allocation of Rs 900 billion for the fiscal year 2017-18, as amount of Rs 709 billion had been proposed to be allocated for infrastructure development, Rs 65 billion for social sector development, Rs ten billion for governance, Rs 15 billion for science and technology, Rs 84 billion for balanced regional development and Rs seven billion for production while Rs 10 billion had been proposed to be fixed for miscellaneous sectors” the source added while sharing the outlines of proposed PSDP amounts under the 11th Five Year Plan.
The source said that to achieve the set goals the Finance Ministry had proposed some measures to the government in this regard. “New high impact / early harvest projects have been initiated under China Pak Economic Corridor” the source said adding that efforts would be made to provide the required finances to the development projects for timely completion of projects to achieve objectives set under 11th Five Year Plan as well as Vision 2025.
Similarly, the source said that Finance Ministry would strengthen mechanism for monitoring and review of development projects for in time completion of envisaged projects and ministries and divisions had been directed to establish monitoring units to ensure timely execution of projects to avoid cost/time over run.
