Budget allocations shouldn’t be altered: Shahid Rasheed Butt

Lahore: The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Thursday said federal and provincial government should not alter budget allocations to suit their designs.

The central and provincial governments continue to exceed limits of current expenditures to impose cuts on the developmental budgets keeping masses underdeveloped, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.

Talking to Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Butt, he said some mega projects should not have been preferred over the welfare projects. He said that last year Punjab allocated Rs345 billion for development but spent only Rs290 billion while remaining Rs55 billion were used for other objectives.

Allocation for public order was down from Rs1 billion and 171 million to Rs 966 million while Rs 151 million less spent on environmental protection. Education got almost Rs 45 billion in the last budget but around 23.5 billion were actually spent.

Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that agriculture development were allocated Rs7 billion and 960 million but the spending stood at Rs 1 billion and 762 million.

It is amazing that Rs 400 million were allocated for special education and Rs 50 million were assigned to non-formal basic education but these sectors have been totally neglected in the new budget.