These costs do not include any costs of a possible war with India.
ISLAMABAD: The federal government has sought approval from the National Assembly for additional funds of Rs345 billion spent during the current fiscal year without prior approval from the parliament. These expenses do not include any expenses for a possible war with India.
According to Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, the additional defense grant of Rs60 billion given is not related to the war, but the army met the war expenses with India from its regularly approved budget.
This approval has been sought along with the budget for the new fiscal year. Although the government had claimed strict control over expenditure, this amount of Rs344.6 billion is the opposite of that, although it is lower than the previous fiscal year.
The government met these expenses by withdrawing funds from various budgeted areas, which did not affect the overall budget volume. However, the issuance of such large supplementary grants raises questions about the government’s budgeting and financial discipline.
As per the agreement with the IMF, the government has pledged that there will be no additional unbudgeted expenditure in the future without the approval of the parliament, except in the case of natural calamities. The government has also promised to obtain prior approval for any expenditure exceeding the budget.
The details of the major supplementary grants are as follows: Rs115 billion was given for payments to independent power plants, Rs59.5 billion for defense, of which Rs23.3 billion has been set aside for the army’s counter-terrorism capability, Rs8 billion.
For various defense projects, Rs7 billion has been set aside for Jinnah Naval Base, Odmara, Rs8 billion for Special Security Division (North and South), Rs5 billion for internal security allowance, Rs2 billion for technology upgradation of ISPR, Rs1.3 billion.
Supplementary grants of Rs 19.2 billion have been approved for the Pak PWD schemes, Rs 7.2 billion for the Green Line Bus and small projects, Rs 4.3 billion for the Ministry of Interior, National Forensic Agency, check posts, women’s facilities, and water schemes in tribal areas. According to sources, this funding through supplementary grants was mostly done with the approval of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), which makes it clear that the budgeting process needs reforms.
