K-P set for lowest ADP expenditures in 4 years

PTI-led govt has consistently failed to fully use development funds

PESHAWAR: As the second Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa prepares to present its first full budget, there is a distinct shadow looming over it: will it also fail to fully utilize the funds allocated under its annual development programme (ADP) to ensure a surplus budget as it did under Pervez Khattak.

Budgetary documents available with The Express Tribune show that under the tenure of the former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief minister and the incumbent Federal Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, the provincial government failed to fully utilize the development funds it had allocated for five consecutive years. As a result, many development funds lapsed.

The cascade effect of this was that this year there has been a 14 per cent reduction in the funds allocated for ADP for the fiscal year 2019-20. Documents show that the K-P government intends to allocate around Rs209 billion for the provincial ADP for the fiscal year 2019-20, up from Rs180 billion allocated in 2018-19.

The documents showed that of the provincial segment of the allocation for ADP, the first PTI provincial government had in 2013-14 allocated Rs83 billion. Of this, the government released Rs75 billion but it used only Rs66 billion — a gap of Rs9 billion which lapsed.

While the allocations in 2014-15 were increased by Rs17 billion to Rs100 billion, of this, Rs97 billion were released and Rs90 billion were utilised.

In the fiscal year 2015-16, allocations were increased 13 per cent to Rs113 billion and the provincial government ended up releasing only Rs108 billion were released but only Rs101 billion were utilised. The trend continued in 2016-17 when Rs125 billion were allocated, up 11 per cent from the previous fiscal year. However, the government released Rs123 billion, but only Rs119 billion were used.

The K-P government increased the allocation by a single percentage point and set aside Rs126 billion in the fiscal year 2017-18 for development— the highest sum allocated by the PTI government thus far. But the provincial government released only Rs114 billion, nine billion rupees less than it did in the previous financial year. Of this, Rs108 billion were spent.

Allocations were slashed by 14 per cent to Rs108.9 billion in the current fiscal year while the government claims to have released Rs95.6 billion by May 31. Of this, it used Rs76.1 billion with Rs19.5 billion lying unused and are sure to lapse.

The fund utilization of the K-P government in the outgoing fiscal year is lower than that of the past four years, and it is on track to maintain its records of never fully utilising ADP funds to maintain a ‘surplus’.

For the upcoming fiscal year, the provincial year has increased allocations by 12 per cent to Rs121.5 billion. With a total of 300 projects earmarked for the next fiscal year, it remains to be seen what percentage of funds does the provincial government use.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2019.