Water and power: Panel recommends Rs65b development budget

Ministry seeks an additional Rs8 billion to speed up work on dams.

ISLAMABAD:

The Priorities Committee on Friday recommended providing the Ministry of Water and Power a Rs65.5 billion development budget for the next fiscal year.

As the first formal step in the process of finalising the current and development budgets, the Priorities Committee met to give some shape to the demands of various ministers for financial year 2011-12. It has recommended giving Rs33 billion for water projects and Rs32.5 billion for the power sector.

On top of that, the Ministry of Water and Power has sought an additional Rs8 billion for carrying out work on a fast-track basis on dams, said a senior official of the ministry. The committee also recommended Rs3 billion current budget for the Ministry of Water and Power.

“Though there are competing demands for additional resources, the government should give preference to the water and power sector in the wake of energy crisis,” said the ministry official.

The allocation includes money for the 4,500-megawatt Diamer-Bhasha Dam, which is estimated to be completed at a cost of Rs1 trillion in six years and the government plans to perform its groundbreaking ceremony before the end of June.

Former president Pervez Musharraf had performed the groundbreaking of the dam but work could not be started due to lack of funding. Pakistan has asked the Asian Development Bank and the United States to provide funds for the project.

The Priorities Committee scrutinises the wish list of the ministers and sends them for consideration of the Annual Plan Coordination Committee, whose recommendations are then approved by the National Economic Council, headed by the prime minister.

An official of the Planning Commission said the Priorities Committee has recommended next year’s budget in line with three-year estimates of the Medium Term Budgetary Framework. The total federal development budget is expected to remain up to Rs280 billion, said the official.

For the outgoing fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs280 billion, which was later slashed to Rs180 billion after floods last summer.

The Priorities Committee recommended a Rs224 million budget for the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, which is Rs10 million more than the budget of the outgoing fiscal year. The Planning Commission official said the increase was on account of increase in salaries of employees.

A Rs22 billion development budget has been recommended for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, which is Rs7 billion more than the outgoing financial year’s original allocation.

For the Ministry of Housing and Works, a budget of Rs1.2 billion has been proposed, while a budget of Rs3 billion has been suggested for the Cabinet Division.

The Planning Commission official said the Committee has asked the ministries to prioritise ongoing projects instead of allocating scarce resources for new schemes. The lack of resources has resulted in almost 2,000 pending schemes, which have a total cost of around Rs4 trillion and require at least five years to be completed, that too, without initiation of any new scheme.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2011.