ISLAMABAD – The Senate Standing Committee on Finance was told on Wednesday that the size of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) had been reduced from Rs 242 billion to Rs 150 billion with a cut of Rs 92 billion. According to the Planning Commission presentation, Growth Strategy and Economic Reforms, given by Deputy Chairman Dr Nadeemul Haq, around 1,822 projects being executed all over the country at present with an estimated cost of Rs 4.080 trillion had faced reduction.
He said that actual approved allocation of Rs 242 billion for the projects 2010-11 had been reduced to Rs 150 billion owing to financial difficulties. According to the presentation, the allocation for Punjab was reduced from Rs 45 billion to Rs 19 billion, Sindh from Rs 36 billion to Rs 15 billion, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Rs 18 billion to Rs 8 billion. However, there were no reductions in allocation for Balochistan’s Rs 28 billion, Azad Kashmir’s Rs 11 billion, FATA Rs 9 billion and Gilgit Baltistan’s Rs 13 billion, the committee was told.
The cuts in the PSDP allocations would affect infrastructure projects of Rs 43 billion and social sector projects of Rs 44 billion in addition to other projects in the agriculture and industries sector, which will face a reduction of Rs 5 billion. The total allocation in the infrastructure side was made at Rs 106 billion, which was cut down to Rs 63 billion, including water projects from Rs 33 billion to Rs 22 billion, power sector from Rs 12 billion to Rs 10 billion, NHA projects from Rs 38 billion to Rs 19 billion, Railways from Rs 10 billion to Rs 4 billion and other infrastructure projects from Rs 13 billion to Rs 8 billion.
The Social Sector allocations were reduced from Rs 128 billion to Rs 84 billion, showing. Allocations for HEC were reduced from Rs 16 billion to Rs 15 billion, health sector from Rs 14 billion to Rs 8 billion, education from Rs 5 billion to Rs 3 billion, special areas from Rs 22 billion to Rs 21 billion, special programmes from Rs 30 billion to Rs 16 billion and other social projects Rs 41 billion to Rs 21 billion.
The Planning Commission said there should be a proper growth policy in the country as the PSDP could not enhance growth. The chairman said that Pakistan’s productivity was the lowest in Asia and if assets were properly managed productivity could be enhanced. He said Pakistan had various assets, which were non-functional, for example, the Convention Centre in Islamabad. He said Pakistan could generate a lot of revenue by managing assets only, without investing a penny.
