The government is likely to increase the budget allocations of ministries and division, while differences over the development spending target for the next financial year will remain between the finance and planning divisions.
An official source said that the government has agreed to the demand of the ministries and divisions to increase their budget for the salary and current expenditures—the increase would be in the range of five to seven per cent.
The ministries had pointed out that the strict monetary measures have caused troubles for undertaking important administrative tasks. They had demanded an across the board increase of ten per cent, however, they were assured that their genuine demands would be met.
It was pointed out in the meetings that in an election year, the pressure increases to absorb the contractual staff as well as induct new staff. A rational allocation will help ministries overcome these problems, which, if allowed to linger on till new government, results in laying off of many of the contractual employees.
The source said that the priorities committee has nearly finalised budget targets of all the ministries and divisions. However, the issue of development spending still requires brainstorming between the P and Q block mandarins.
Meanwhile, an official statement said, the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar chaired a meeting on Saturday to review budget preparations, ahead of his forthcoming visit to Washington DC for participation in the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
