Planning Minister Takes Notice of Slow Utilization of Development Funds

Minister for Planning Development & Special Initiatives, Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday reviewed the second quarter of the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) and noticed slow utilization of funds which is 56 percent of the authorized funds. The meeting was attended by the Federal Secretaries and head of institutional representatives. During the meeting, PSDP projects of all the Ministries/divisions were discussed while the Minister was briefed on the utilization and expenditures of funds. “Those projects which are in advanced stages and have low utilization should be capped and priority should be given to the important projects which are near to completion,” said the minister while stressing the ministries to ensure the utilization of funds. He suggested that keeping in view the constraint budget and release strategy, priority may be assigned to those projects which are strategic and near completion. The Minister further said that the development budget has decreased from Rs. 1,000 billion to Rs. 727 billion during the last four years.  For the first time in history, the previous government did not release the final quarterly installment for the development budget, he claimed.