Sindh, Centre at 'odds' over allocation of development fund

LAHORE: The federal and Sindh governments are at odds over the allocation provincial development funds, ARY News reported.

According to sources, the Ministry of Finance has written a letter to the Sindh government, stating that Rs 9 billion 97 crore has been released to all provinces as development funds.

In the current financial year, Sindh has received the highest amount of Rs 5 billion 58 crore, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has received the lowest amount of only Rs 39 crore. Balochistan has received over Rs 3 billion, while Punjab has received Rs 90 crore as development funds, sources added.

Despite receiving the highest amount of development funds, the Sindh government is complaining about the release of funds.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had given instructions to the Ministry of Finance and Planning to release the development funds.

Later, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah wrote a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif regarding the non-release of development funds.

READ: Centre allocates Rs78bln for Sindh development projects

Moreover, the Ministry of Finance assured Sindh that funds will be released under the Annual Development Plan. Due to low revenue, 15% of development funds will be released during the first quarter of the current financial year, while 40% will be released during the last quarter.

Its important to note here that the federal government allocated Rs 78 billion for various development projects in Sindh under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the current financial year.

According to the PSDP document, Rs 1.14 billion already released for different projects in the first two months of the current financial year.

The document stated that Rs 1 billion allocated for the Sindh Coastal Highway, while Rs 1.6 billion for the Stone Pitching Northern Dadu Canal project.