Government to Abolish 260 Development Projects

  • Out of 1,092 projects, 260 development schemes are being eliminated.
  • PSDP funds’ approval is at Rs631bn, with utilisation at Rs312.3bn.
  • Projects will be scrapped irrespective of political considerations: Iqbal.

The government, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has made the decision to eliminate approximately 24% of development projects from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) list for the current fiscal year.

From the 1,092 projects listed in the PSDP, which require trillions of rupees to be fully completed over several years, the government has pinpointed 260 development schemes, valued at billions of rupees, for abolishment.

Reportedly, the Ministry of Planning has established criteria to eliminate almost a quarter of the PSDP projects. To be precise, the ministry intends to abolish 23.6% of the projects listed in the PSDP, which includes around 1,100 projects in total.

Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal stated that the government is removing 260 development projects from the PSDP, emphasising that this action would not be influenced by political factors.

He mentioned the timely completion of the NED’s University Project as a successful example.

The minister projected that the utilisation of PSDP funds could approach Rs1,000 billion for the current fiscal year. Addressing concerns about the low fund utilisation to date, the minister asserted that the pace of fund utilisation would increase during the final quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal year.

However, official data from the Ministry of Planning indicates that, out of the total PSDP allocation of Rs1,100 billion, which includes Rs843.145 billion for ministries and divisions and Rs255.854 billion for public corporations, the approved funds amounted to Rs631 billion. The actual utilisation remained low at Rs312.3 billion during the first eight months (July-Feb) of the current fiscal year.

The federal minister noted that while the finance ministry has not yet disclosed the resource envelope for the upcoming development budget, their requirement is between Rs2,500 to Rs2,900 billion to meet the country’s growing development needs.