New development projects to get Rs.270bn only

June 17, 2021

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The Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives announced on Wednesday that roughly seventy percent of the Rs 900 billion allocated under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) 2021-22 will be spent on ongoing projects, as development projects exceeded Rs 6 trillion.
This was announced by senior officials from the Ministry of Planning, who briefed the Senate Standing Committee on planning, development and special initiatives.

They also stated that, according to the law, an unapproved project cannot be added to the PSDP.

The committee met with Saleem Mandviwala in the presidency here on Wednesday to review members’ recommendations and finalize the 2021 PSDP Financial (Amendment) Bill 2021-22.

The Committee noted that it currently does not play any role under the law and that unapproved projects cannot be added to the private sector development plan for 2021-2022 and therefore calls for a revision of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Law.

Senator Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen raised the issue of insufficient allocation of the D.I.Khan-Zhob and Zhob-Kuchlak road projects.

He said that these projects will not even start with little allocation of funds.

He also noted that the Southern Baluchistan package is a step towards dividing Baluchistan, as the areas where the majority of Pashtuns live in northern Baluchistan are completely ignored.

He also demanded that the scholarship in Baluchistan be extended for at least another five years.

Senator Shafiq Tarin also raised the issue of a Dual route from Karachi to Quetta and Chaman. He asked why the N-25 highway was split in two. One is paid from public funds, and the other remains on the account of the PPP project. He asked to give priority to his path.

He added that the project was approved in 2017; However, in the PSDP, only three percent is allocated to the project. Tarin said that of the 81 billion rupees, only 3 billion rupees were allocated, adding that with such a small amount, a tender for the project is not possible. A spokesman for the National Highway Administration (NHA) said it requested Rs 198 billion for PSDP 2021-22, but Rs 113 billion was allocated.

When asked, Tarin said that it was impossible to get land for that amount. Ministry of Planning officials said the NHA is given one liner budget, while NHA itself divide it to different projects as per its requirements.

If NHA wants to fund more projects, it can do so from another source. Ministry of Planning officials said the PSDP did not fund unapproved projects.

“If we can’t recommend how we manage the committee meeting,” the committee chairman said, adding that they will monitor and evaluate all projects on a budgetary basis.

A representative of the High Election Commission told the commission that there were 168 projects in total, of which 128 are underway and 40 are new. 60 to 70 percent of the projects are organizationall, and 30 percent are human development projects.

This year, 40 new projects have been allocated, the total cost of the current project is 29.736 billion, and the cost of new projects is 12.713 billion. This year, the total development budget for HEC was Rs 42.45 billion.