The government has made the decision to reallocate Rs150 billion from the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) in order to assist in the reconstruction of the areas that were impacted by the flooding.
Despite the fact that the government has begun its program with the IMF, the present administration is having problems freeing up enough money to assist those who have been affected by the flooding.
Initial estimates pegged the economic loss suffered by Pakistan as a result of the devastating floods between $10 and $12.5 billion.
On Tuesday, senior authorities confirmed to The News that discussions had taken place and that the Ministry of Planning was now developing proposals.
Federal PSDP funding are expected to decrease from 800 billion rupees to 650 billion rupees for the current fiscal year, as officials have already announced.
The official explained that Rs150 billion in development money would be redirected to flood-affected areas that now lack the resources necessary to carry out development initiatives.
“Development projects cannot be carried out at this time due to the current environment.”
It is the role of the Ministry of Planning, in conjunction with the relevant Ministries and Agencies responsible for executing the projects, to decide which projects will have their funding lowered.
When we asked about relief efforts, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, secretary of the Ministry of Planning, said they were still reviewing the damage.
However, a recent office memorandum announced that the Ministry of Finance had changed its strategy for the distribution of development money for the current fiscal year.
Each request for a grant or allocation for the development budget included in the list of approved expenses for 2022-23 was indicated to be subject to the money release strategy.
No individual project, cost center, or line items will be affected by this request for funding. For each request for grant and appropriations, the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives is responsible for releasing and uploading funds to the AGPR server at the maximum level of 10% for the first quarter, 20% for the second quarter, 30% for the third quarter, and 40% for the fourth quarter of the approved budget.
Each quarter, within the limits described above, the PAO must ensure that the allocated funds from each authorised project in a demand for grant and appropriation are disbursed.
The PAO must guarantee that there are adequate finances for all projects to pay for the salaries of all employees working on those projects.
The Finance Department is responsible for uploading the quarterly budget allocation and release onto the MoF and AGPR servers within the release limits outlined above.
Any accounting firm or government agency attempting to make a payment in excess of these thresholds must first obtain the Finance Department’s express written consent.
As of the end of the first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal year, the government had disbursed 20% of the development budget.
But for the time being, the government has ordered ministries, divisions, and affiliated agencies to avoid spending more than 10 percent of their budgets on this initiative.
From the entire Rs800 billion allocated for the PSDP in 2022-2023, the government provided Rs433 billion for infrastructure.
In addition to the aforementioned £39 billion, £227 billion was allocated to the physical planning and housing sector, £83 billion to the water sector, and £84 billion to the energy sector.
144 billion rupees were set aside for social services by the government.
Seventy billion rupees went into a program to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals, another 45 billion went toward education (including the Higher Education Commission; HEC), and the remaining 16 billion went toward other needs.
The provinces and special territories received a combined 96 billion rupees from the federal government, while the merged districts of KP received 50 billion.
Budget allocations included 16 billion rupees for management, 13 billion for food and agriculture, and 3 billion for manufacturing (Rs5 billion).
Mahnur is MS(development Studies)Student at NUST University, completed BS Hons in Eng Literature. Content Writer, Policy analyst, Climate Change specialist, Teacher, HR Recruiter.
