CDA to face budget cut next fiscal year

Two new development schemes introduced.

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government has made a 11.4 per cent cut in allocations for the capital’s civic agency in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the fiscal year 2014-15.

For the next fiscal year the government has allocated Rs1.57 billion, almost Rs 202.93 million less than financial year 2013-14, for five ongoing and two new development schemes. In the last financial year, CDA was allocated Rs1.78 billion under the under PSDP.

For the year 2014-15, Rs 1.4 billion has been allocated for five ongoing schemes, while Rs 121.7 million for two new schemes.

For ongoing projects, Rs1 billion have been allocated for widening the Kashmir Highway. CDA and the federal government are to share the project’s cost equally. The revised PC-I amounting to Rs4.7 billion of the project was approved by Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) last July.

The federal government had already released Rs924.82 million during financial year 2013-14, while Rs1 billion have been allocated in the upcoming year. Three lanes are being added to the highway from Peshawar More to GT Road. Nearly 80 per cent of the work has been completed.

For the year 2014-15, Rs300 million have been allocated for the construction of additional family suites for parliamentarians. The Rs2.9 billion project was approved in January 2010 to overcome shortage of government accommodation for MPs. The government released Rs1.15 billion in the last three financial years.

Another Rs83.34 million has been allocated for improving security arrangements at Parliament House, Rs50 million for upgrading the heliport and Rs20 million for construction of a second hanger.

For two new schemes a sum of Rs121.7 million has been allocated for the financial year 2014-15, of which Rs 111.7 million has been earmarked for the construction or upgradation of a mosque at Pak Secretariat, and Rs10 million for improving security arrangements at Parliament Lodges, Islamabad.

The CDA is expected to announce its annual budget for the next financial year during the second week of June. The federal government finances the CDA budget by allocating funds under PSDP and as maintenance grant.

“CDA’s budget for 2014-15 will be more realistic as it is based on careful calculations,” said a senior official. Next year’s budget would be relatively lower than the current budget’s projections, which according to him was based on assumptions.

The total outlay of the previous year’s budget of the CDA was Rs33.98 billion, which was almost 20 per cent higher than the budget for 2012-13. A whopping 65 per cent of the current budget was allocated for non-development expenditure.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2014.