Over 20 ministries await release of funds

Budget allocated for various special programmes remain unutilized

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has so far not released a single rupee against approved development budget of over 20 ministries, including the Ministry of Climate Change, defence, production, maritime affairs and water resources, after Finance Bill 2019-20 was passed in July this year.

In addition, funds already allocated for various special programmes including those of Prime Minister’s Youth Development Programme and Federal Development Programme also remain to be utilized, revealed a Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) document, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune.

According to the PSDP document, the federal government during the first 45 days of the fiscal year 2019-20 had only released Rs50.44 billion from Rs701 billion development budget for various ministries and public sector institutions out of which Rs4.44 billion had been given to the Ministry of Higher Education, Rs2.69 billion to construction and maintenance of national highways and motorways, Rs4.66 billon as block allocation fund to Azad Kashmir, Rs2.62 billion to Gilgit-Baltistan, Rs160 million to development projects under Ministry of Science and Technology, Rs1.384 billion to Ministry of Railways, Rs60 million to Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), Rs4.27 billion to Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Rs0.86 billion to Ministry of Food Security and  Rs13.5 million given to human rights division.

However, 20 of the 38 federal government ministries and public institutions had not been released a single rupee for development projects until now, including NTDC, PEPCO, federal development programme and PM Youth Hunarmand Programme.