Funds release to continue in various projects

Islamabad: There will be no formal cut on the current fiscal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), and funds would continue to be released to the development projects that are progressing well, said spokesman Planning Commission Muhammad Asif Sheikh.

Talking to reporters after Ecnec meeting here on Wednesday, he said that fund releases to slow-paced projects would be withheld, as mere transfer of money to projects' accounts would not give any benefit.

He admitted that federal government had asked the provincial governments to inform the former about the savings they could do in their respective annual development plans in the current fiscal. However, he clarified that the federal government had not given any indicative cut in the provinces' development budget.

Responding to a question, Sheikh said that the Ecnec meeting could not take up the mid-year review of the PSDP. Some officials were on some foreign tours due to which the planning and development (P&D) division could not identify the slow development schemes. 'The PSDP spending is far better than last fiscal. We will take up the exercise to know the exaction position very soon,' he added.