ISLAMABAD: The PML-N-led federal government has proposed a steep reduction in the development budget for the fiscal year 2022-23, ARY News reported, citing sources.
The sources say the development budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 has been proposed at Rs700 billion against the Rs900 bn allocation for the current ongoing fiscal year of 2021-22.
The government has issued indicative budget ceilings to dozens of federal government divisions for the fiscal year 2022-23 along with instructions not to make any allocation for various ongoing projects due to the limited fiscal space.
It has been proposed to allocate Rs50 billion for the power division in the budget of 2022-23 while a Rs120 billion allocation has been proposed for the National Highway Authority (NHA), the sources said.
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For the development of the merged tribal districts in the KP province, Rs40 billion would be allocated which is Rs14 billion lesser as compared to the current fiscal year.
The government has proposed Rs30 billion for the Higher Education Commission (HEC), which is only 44% of this year’s original allocation, which could force the HEC to cut many grant programmes. Meanwhile, PM Shehbaz Sharif has directed not to cut the budget of HEC.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will be given Rs2 billion, which is higher than the original allocation for this year.
The recommendations will be presented before the Plan Coordination Committee, which is scheduled to meet on June 4, the sources said.
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has declared a dozen priority schemes for the development spending in the next year with e-governance and information technology entrepreneur development as the topmost priority.
