Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal reviewed the second quarter of the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) 2022–23 on Thursday and noted a delayed use of funds, which amounts to 56% of the authorized funds.
He urged the ministries to make sure the money was used, saying, “Those projects which are in advanced stages and have poor utilization should be capped and priority should be given to essential projects near to completion.”
Iqbal continued by saying that strategic projects that are almost finished should be given priority while keeping in mind the limited budget and release strategy.
“Over the past four years, the development budget has dropped from Rs 1000 billion to Rs 727 billion. The previous administration failed to release the final quarterly installment of the development budget for the first time in history, according to the minister.”
The government authorized the use of Rs 224.5 billion in five months (July-November) from a total allocation of Rs 727 billion under PSDP 2022-23, according to the most recent statistics made public by the Planning Ministry.
Only 130 billion rupees of the authorized amount was spent by the ministries and divisions during the examined period.
