- 700 billion rupees necessary to meet the requirements of the donor project.
- PSDP financing is less than RS1 600 billion target estimate.
- Govt reduces 200 projects of the current development program.
Islamabad: The federal government should present the 2025-26 budget on June 2, with 921 billion rupees allocated to development projects – well below the minimum of 1,600 billion rupees deemed necessary by the Ministry of Planning, The news reported on Friday.
The ministry fears that the amount allocated is too small for development projects. They argue that respecting the requirements of the local currency (RUPEE) for projects funded by external donors will cost around 700 billion rupees. This leaves very little room for other essential projects, which makes the current allocation insufficient.
The government should unveil the upcoming budget for 2025-2026, in Parliament with the possibility of convening the Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) and the National Economic Council (NEC) to the third and fourth week of May 2025 respectively for having approved the macroeconomic and development budget.
On the eve of the launch of the monthly development update with the planning of the secretary and the chief economist here, the Minister of Planning Ahsan Iqbal said that the Ministry of Finance shared the RS921 million indicative budgetary ceiling for the PSDP for the financial year at 2.9 billion rupees.
“The PSDP allocation must hover about 1,600 billion rupees to meet the requirement for financing current and new initiatives as part of the Uraan Pakistan program,” he added.
The priority committee held meetings over a week and found total requirements close to RS3 Billions.
“We will now approach this issue with the Ministry of Finance and other relevant forums,” said the minister.
He said that the PSDP had been revised downwards from RS1,400 billion to Rs1,100 billion for the current financial year, and that the Ministry of Town Planning has so far granted the authorization of 900 billion rupees. It is expected that the use of development funds will go near RS750 to 800 billion rupees by the end of June 2025.
The use of development funds amounted to more than 448 billion rupees in the first ten months of the current financial year. Iqbal also said that the government had abolished 200 PSDP projects.
The minister said that there were irregularities in the Neelum Jhelum hydroelectric project because his financial director was a master’s degree in geography. About the DASU, he said that they had hired an international consultant to check the reasons for costs and await his conclusions.