India's Largest Database on New Projects
Fund crunch stops work on 1,300 projects
11 April 2011: The expenditure on public sector development projects in the first nine months of the current fiscal year has totalled Rs 112 billion, about four per cent less than during the same period in 2010, bringing more than 1,300 projects to a standstill.
Compared to the same period of the 2007-08 financial year, the spending under the PSDP dropped by more than 71 per cent from Rs192 billion. During the first nine months of the last financial year (2009-10), the development projects had received only Rs117 billion.
According to figures released by the Planning Commission, Pakistan, the resource allocation of Rs242 billion announced in the 2010-11 budget has been cut by about 40 per cent to Rs150 billion, severely affecting hundreds of development projects and resulting in cost escalations.
About 409 infrastructure projects for which Rs106 billion had been allocated were given only Rs 41 billion in the first nine months. In the remaining three months, these projects will get another Rs22 billion. The total cost of these projects is estimated at Rs3 trillion.
In the social sector, 1,266 projects of Rs 850 billion were allocated Rs 128 billion that has now been slashed to Rs 84 billion.
In the first nine months (July-March), the government released only Rs68 billion for the projects. As a result of financial constraints, more than 765 projects in communications, education and power sector have come to a complete halt because these projects did not receive any fund during the first nine months. Another 548 projects have been provided a maximum of Rs5 million during the period.
Source: Dawn