Pakistan's development expenditure comes to standstill amid fiscal challenges
Pakistan's development expenditure has nearly come to a standstill, with just Rs 22.5 billion spent in the first two months (July-August) of the fiscal year, against an annual budget allocation of Rs 950 billion, Dawn reported.
This comes amid rising interest payments and disruptions caused by a change in the government.
Dawn is a Pakistani English-language newspaper.
As per data from the Ministry of Planning and Development, the actual expenditure on core development in two months further plunged to a mere Rs 8.1 billion after excluding the Rs 14.4 billion disbursed by the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government for its parliamentarians' schemes, under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Achievement Programme (SAP), during the first 40 days of the fiscal year.
A senior official claimed that a significant portion of Rs 8.1 billion was spent before the caretaker government took office. This amount included Rs 2.8 billion utilised by water sector projects, Rs 1.5 billion in the power sector, and an additional Rs 1.4 billion in the information technology and telecom sector, covering both local and international contractual obligations.
