Rs727 billion earmarked for development programme

The coalition government on Friday unveiled an election year development programme of 1,173 schemes but with allocation of only Rs727 billion, which would slow down work on existing schemes and increase the completion period of newly added projects.

The allocation of Rs727 billion for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2022-23 is only Rs177 billion, or 32%, more than the reduced size of the PSDP for the outgoing fiscal year.

The government has envisaged financing of Rs73 billion by the private sector in the next fiscal year.

Read more: 160 new schemes added to PSDP despite dearth of resources

The PSDP book showed that the coalition government has added roughly Rs7.1 trillion worth of 1,173 schemes in the next year’s development programme. With a meagre allocation of Rs727 billion, it will take on an average 10 years to complete this development portfolio.

The inclusion of new schemes and inadequate allocation for the existing ones highlights the imprudent policies of the new government, which would also cause losses to the exchequer due to the escalation in their cost.

The government has proposed allocation of Rs70 billion for the parliamentarians’ schemes. This is contrary to the austerity drive as most of these expenses are wasted due to the lack of proper checks and controls on these schemes.