Federal Government releases Rs 5.17 billion in IT and Telecom division funds so far this year

The federal government of Pakistan has recorded an investment of 5.17 billion rupees in the Information Technology and Telecom Division in the current fiscal year alone.

Initially, 7.341 billion rupees were allocated to 29 ongoing as well as upcoming development schemes of this division in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the 2019-2020 financial year. This was later lowered down to 4.7 billion rupees.

The Public-Sector Development Programme has so far been allocated a total of 583.3 billion rupees in the year 2019-2020 by the federal government, 121.24 billion of which is in foreign aid. This is against a total budget of 701 billion rupees that is to be allotted to the PSDP.

The latest data released by the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Reforms shows us that the government has released 244.2 billion rupees, which includes 18 billion rupees in foreign aid for any and all development projects put together by various ministries, divisions, or other departments. This has been released so far and it is out of the 313.6 billion rupees allotted to these development projects. They have also released 194.18 billion rupees, 96.6 billion of which come as foreign aid, for the development of corporations.

The National Highways Authority (NHA) has received a total of 173.5 billion rupees so far, 78.74 billion of which come as international aid while the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC)/Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) have received a total of 20.7 billion rupees, out of which 17.86 come as international aid.

Other allocated budgets have also been shown in the data released. These budgets include allocations for the development projects of special areas, the development projects of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), for Gilgit Baltistan, the development projects of the National health Services, Regulations, and Coordination Division as well as the Cabinet Division, the development projects for the Railway Division, development projects for the Science and Technology Research Division, and the National Food Security and research Division.

Budgets were also seen being allocated to the development projects of the Federal Education and Professional Training Division and of the Higher Education Commission. Additional budget releases seen were that of the development projects of the following divisions: Water Resources Division, the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority, the Climate Change Division, the Interior Division, the Revenue Division, Housing and Works Division, Finance Division, Aviation Division and the Defence Production Division. Lastly, budgets allotted to the development projects of Merged Areas 10 Years Development Plan and the development of the Merged Districts of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were also mentioned in the report.