PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has spent only 25 percent of the total allocated development budget in eight months.
Sources said that the KP has so far spent only Rs 75.16 billion out of the total allocated Rs 297 billion budget for the Annual Development Programme.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will have to spend the remaining amount allocated for the ADP by the end of the fiscal year ended on June 30.
Sources say that due to non-timely spending of funds, the cost of projects was increased, due to which the cost of these projects will also increase in the next financial year.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Muzammil Aslam, on the other hand, claimed that 75 percent of the funds have been released under the Annual Development Programme this financial year.
The documents, however, speak a different story. According to documents, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has so far released Rs 102.56 billion under the Annual Development Programme, which is less than 35 percent of the total ADP. Of these, as per the documents, only Rs 75.16 billion has been spent so far, which is about 25 percent of the total of the Annual Development Program.
As per the breakup, out of 16.29, only Rs 6.2 billion were allocated for agriculture.
Similarly, more than Rs 16.71 billion was allocated for the development programme, out of which Rs 6.68 billion was released.
Despite declaring the education emergency, the government has so far released only 6.68 billion out of the total 16.71 billion budget. They only managed to spend Rs 4.16 billion allocated for the primary and secondary education department.
Rs 25.69 billion was allocated for the annual development program in the health sector, out of which Rs 7.70 billion was released, while only Rs 5.50 billion was spent. Despite the allocation of money for more than 80 major and minor health projects, not a single rupee has been released yet.
It is said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has cut several development projects to run the current expenditure and many projects have been dropped.
However, Finance Minister Muzammil Aslam speaking exclusively to Pakhtun Digital, he said that there has been no cut in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s annual development programme, rather Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has increased its revenues compared to the past, due to which there was no need to make cuts.
He said that employees are receiving salaries on time and 75 percent of funds have been released for the annual development programme and 100 percent of funds will be released for the ADP by June.
