Govt decides to scrap around 24% of development projects

• 260 development schemes being abolished out of 1,092 projects.
• PSDP funds' approval stands at Rs631bn; utilisation at Rs312.3bn.
•  Projects to be scrapped regardless of political consideration: Iqbal.

ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government has decided to scrap almost 24% of development projects worth billions of rupees from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) list in the current fiscal year, The News reported on Wednesday.

Out of the 1,092 projects in the PSDP list, with a throw-forward of trillions of rupees required for their completion in several years, the government has so far identified 260 development schemes worth multi-billion rupees that are being abolished.

The Ministry of Planning is said to have devised criteria for abolishing almost one-fourth of the PSDP projects. To be exact, the ministry is all set to abolish 23.6% of the projects on the PSDP list, which has a total of around 1,100 projects.

Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal while talking to reporters after attending the PIDE annual conference said that the government was deleting 260 development projects from the PSDP and argued that it would not be done keeping in view political considerations at all. 

Citing an example, he said that the NED's University Project was accomplished well on time.

The minister claimed that the utilisation of PSDP funds might go close to Rs1,000 billion for the current fiscal year. When asked again about the low utilisation of funds so far, the minister insisted that the utilisation of funds would pace up in the last quarter (April-June) period of the current fiscal year.

However, official data released by the Ministry of Planning showed that out of a total allocation of PSDP of Rs1,100 billion including Rs843.145 billion for ministries, divisions and Rs255.854 billion for public corporations, the authorisation of funds stood at Rs631 billion whereas the utilisation was meagre and stood at only Rs312.3 billion in first eight months (July-Feb) period of the current fiscal year.

The federal minister said that the finance ministry had not yet shared resource envelop for outlay of the upcoming development budget but their requirement stood at Rs2,500 to Rs2,900 billion to align with increased development needs of the country.