Federal Minister for Finance Abdul Hafeez Sheikh has said on the pressure of parliamentarians, billion rupees are approved for the development projects every year without realizing the condition of national exchequer and these projects hang about uncompleted for years.
While addressing to the session of Senate, he said that the nation should know that how much relief they would be provided, how the development budget would cut and what is the actual situation of economy.
He said that during last year Rs 270 billion were allocated, whereas this year Rs 290 billion would be earmarked for the development projects. He said that due to release of Rs 350 billion to the provinces, their developmental budget has been enhanced to 82 percent.
He said that Planning Commission issues the fund for development projects according to availability of funds, which depends upon the revenue collection.
On the other hand the Senators form Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa protested in the house over non- releasing of the funds for road construction in their provinces.
Federal Minister for Communication Arbab Alamgir said that bureaucracy is much powerful then ministers. He said that budget of Rs 37 bn for Communication Ministry was allocated but later it was cut down to Rs 18 bn out of which Rs 16 bn were not released.
He said that the law and order situation in Baluchistan is very grim so government would have to spend huge fund there. He told the house that projects worth Rs 200 billion were kicked of in Baluchistan, but work on most of them were stopped due to lack of funds.
Senator Haji Adeel has said that the government releases fund for the progress of Multan and Larkana only.
