Centre’s spending on development remains miniscule

The Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) expenditure in the first five months of the current fiscal year is struggling at 10.4pc of its Rs1.1 trillion annual allocation as the government keeps a tight lid on disbursements to meet requirements of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of meeting certain fiscal surplus. The latest data from the Ministry of Planning and Development showed the total PSDP expenditure at Rs114.5bn in July-November. Under the mechanism announced by the Ministry of Finance for the current fiscal year, the government should release 15pc of the budgeted allocation in the first quarter, followed by 20pc in the second quarter, 25pc in the third quarter and the remaining 40pc in the last quarter of the fiscal year. As such, the estimated release for PSDP by end-November should be at least 28pc of annual allocation or no less than Rs310bn.