Uplift funds diverted for population census

ECC okays transfer of Rs12b reserved for development of climate change, energy and road schemes

ISLAMABAD:

The cash-starved government on Wednesday approved to divert funds worth Rs12 billion, reserved for development of climate change, energy and road infrastructure schemes, for meeting the expenses incurred on the ongoing population census -- an action that once again highlighted its poor budgeting.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar presided over the huddle of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet that allowed to divert funds from the uplift budget.

The step was taken after the finance ministry refused to fund the constitutionally-obligated census from the current budget.

Despite knowing in advance the calendar of the population and housing census, the finance ministry had not made adequate allocations for it in the budget in June last year.

Read more: Govt wants to address PPP’s census concerns

Every year, the budget becomes irrelevant a day after its approval because of unrealistic assumptions and low allocations.

According to the planning ministry, the Finance Division had verbally communicated to it that at present, it was not in a position to issue a supplementary grant of Rs24 billion.

It added that the Finance Division requested the planning ministry to surrender funds amounting to Rs12 billion from Public Sector Development Programmes (PSDP) projects in its favour.

In return, the Finance Division would turn the issue of the technical supplementary grants (TSG) in favour of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the planning ministry continued.

The ECC approved to slash the development budget of the National Highway Authority (NHA) by Rs6 billion or 5%.

On Monday, the ECC had given the nod to cut Rs12 billion from the NHA budget but the authority strongly resisted the move.

The committee also approved to reduce the climate change ministry’s development budget by Rs2 billion or 21% to finance the population census.

Also read: Resolution against digital census

The climate change ministry has already been complaining about low allocation of funds amid rising needs.

The ECC diverted Rs2 billion or 4.5% of the planning ministry's allocation for financing the census.

It further transferred another Rs2 billion or 5% of the Power Division’s annual development allocation for this purpose.

The 7th population census exercise is under way but the Sindh government has raised serious objections over digital head counting.

The PBS is trying to address the concerns of the Sindh government.

The PBS needs Rs12 billion to clear the liabilities of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), armed forces and district governments.

The planning ministry had requested the Finance Division to allocate a sum of Rs34 billion for conducting the 7th population and housing census.

A total of Rs10 billion has already been released by the Finance Division during the last and this fiscal year for this purpose.

The ECC also approved Rs10 million for the medical treatment of Jan Sher Khan, the country’s former world squash champion, who had been diagnosed with multiple health issues.

The national food security and research ministry submitted a summary on the fixation of the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation Limited's (Passco) wheat procurement targets for the year 2023.

The committee approved the recommendation of the ministry to assign a wheat procurement target of 1.8 million metric tons at the procurement price of Rs3,900 per 40kg to Passco.

It also allowed Rs201 billion borrowing for financing the wheat operations.

This amount includes the Rs16 billion interest payments on the loans to be taken for wheat procurement.

The ECC directed the national food security and research ministry to form a committee to review proper use of wheat as well as its storage mechanism and silos in the country and present its findings to the committee in 15 days, according to the finance ministry press statement.

Unlike in the past, this time the ECC only approved Passco’s wheat target, as the provincial governments did not submit their procurement plans.

As of last week, Passco reported public wheat stocks at 1.55 million metric tons.

With the remaining import of 612,103 metric tons out of approved 2.65 million tons that was allowed to be brought into the country, the total availability with Passco would be 2.2 million tons, the ECC was informed.

The projected release from Passco’s stock is estimated at 638,848 metric tons, leaving behind a carry-forward stock of 1.32 million metric tons at the start of the new food year next month.

Passco has informed that its pending liabilities on account of provincial governments, strategic organisations and food departments were reported at Rs110 billion.

Last year, Passco was assigned a procurement target of 1.7 million tons but it could achieve only 75% of it.

Wheat crop harvesting has already started in southern Sindh.

The Provincial Crop Reporting Services (CRS) has reported wheat crop sowing at 21.94 million acres or 96% of the target area.

The shortfall is because of the crop substitution in Punjab and less sowing in Sindh as the agricultural land is still covered with water from last year's rains and floods.