K-P spends a third of its budget on admin in FY 2019-20

In the first six months, provincial govt released Rs402b out of total allocation of Rs868b

PESHAWAR: With the first half of the fiscal year coming to a close at the turn of the year, the provincial government has disclosed that it has so far spent Rs271.99 billion on administrative expenses during the two fiscal quarters – July to December.

This accounts for nearly a third of the total money — for development and non-development — allocated in the annual budget.

In a report on its administrative expenses released on Wednesday, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government said that a total of Rs868 billion had been allocated for development and non-development expenses in the budget for the fiscal year 2019-20. Of this, the government has so far released Rs402.37 billion.

Of this, a major chunk, or Rs271.99 billion, has been spent on non-development expenses.

The report further states that out of the total budget, the provincial government has allocated Rs565.28 billion for administrative expenditures. Of this, Rs316.74 billion has been released by the government.

The total sum amount allocated for tribal areas for administrative expenses was Rs169.59 billion. Of this, Rs49.27 billion was released. For the district governments, Rs142.14 billion had been allocated of which Rs63.34 billion was released.

According to the report, the provincial government has not provided any loans to its employees in the first half of the fiscal year.

At least Rs6.21 billion has been spent on the provision of food items of people in the province. A further Rs3.93 billion was returned to the federal government to service loans.

The report said that the provincial government has allocated Rs0.54 billion for the assembly, Rs1.87 billion for general administration, Rs0.021 billion for treasuries, and Rs0.42 billion for the finance department. A further Rs50 million have been allocated for the planning and development department, Rs340 million for revenue, Rs310 million for excise and taxation, Rs580 million for interior, Rs1.15 billion for prisons, Rs4.74 billion for higher education, Rs21.4 billion for health, Rs1.34 billion for communication and works, Rs0.62 billion for roads and highways, and Rs3 billion for public engineering.

As per the report, Rs1.62 billion were allocated for buildings, Rs180 million for agriculture, Rs180 million for mineral, Rs0.94 billion for technical education, Rs0.16 billion for labour, Rs0.14 billion for information, Rs0.17 billion for social welfare, Rs90 million for Zakat and Usher, Rs36.7 billion for pension, Rs1.4 billion for subsidies.

The report further said that the provincial government has not made any investments.

According to the report, Rs45.5 million was allocated for minority affairs, Rs380 million for sports and tourism, Rs210 million population welfare, Rs34.8 million for information technologies

The provincial government, the report said, spent Rs5.2 billion on general expenses in districts. It also spent Rs1.25 billion on taxes and tolls, Rs10.1 million on housing, Rs56.5 billion in salaries head of the district employees. The government spent Rs20 million on inter-provincial affairs, Rs42.8 million power and energy sector, Rs90 million transport, Rs0.6 billion primary and secondary education, Rs1.5 billion relief and rehabilitations and Rs510 million loan repayment, the report revealed.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2020.