President House

Despite announcement of austerity measures by President Dr Arif Alvi, the annual expense of the presidency have increased by 4pc.

According to the budget 2022-23 document, the total expense of the presidency for the coming fiscal year (to begin from July 1) will be Rs1.5 billion against last year’s expenditure of Rs1.2 billion. The personal expenditure of President Alvi has gone up by 5pc.

Under the head of cabinet secretariat employee expenses, allowances have increased to Rs411 million, against last year’s expenditure of Rs405 million. Under the head of expenditure of staff, household and allowances of the president (personal) Rs462 million have been earmarked for employee-related expenses.

Operating expenses of the president have also increased by 7.3pc. Under the head of “staff, household, and allowances of the president (public)” Rs277 million have been earmarked for employee-related expenses, Rs97 million for operating expenses, Rs10 million for employees retirement benefits, Rs0.5 million for grants, subsidies and write off loans, Rs18.5 million for physical assets and Rs7 million for repair and maintenance.

On one hand, the cash-strapped government has slashed the overall development budget for the next fiscal year starting from July 1, it has introduced a number of schemes for the federal capital. Separate allocations have been made for metro bus services and the much-delayed project aimed at reducing contamination in Rawal Lake. Besides, it has increased the budget of the HEC and capital police and fixed Rs144 million for computer labs and teachers working in institutions under the FDE. However, despite the ongoing economic crunch, the budget shows a significant rise in the expenses of the Presidency and Prime Minister Office.

PM Office

The annual expenditure of the Prime Minister Office has been increased by 29.4 per cent in the fiscal budget 2022-23.

The budget of the Prime Minister Office for the year 2021-22 was Rs774 million and now it has been increased to Rs993 million.

The expenses of PM Office (internal) will be Rs465 million for the next year against Rs401 million of the last year. Whereas, the expenditure of PM Office (public) will be Rs528 million in 2022-23 against Rs Rs373 million last year.

Under the head of expenditure of staff, household and allowances of the PM Office (Internal) Rs331 million have been earmarked for employees-related expenses.

Interestingly, operating expenses of the PM have also been increased by 29 per cent.

Under the head of “PM Office Pubic” Rs423 million have been earmarked for employees-related expenses, Rs61 million for operating expenses, Rs25 million for employees retirement benefits, Rs11.3 million for grants, subsidies and write off loans, Rs1.4 million for physical assets and Rs6 million for repair and maintenance.

HEC

The federal government has allocated over Rs110 billion for development schemes and recurring budget of Higher Education Commission (HEC), which is a little higher than the outgoing financial year.

For fiscal year 2021-22, the government had earmarked Rs108 billion - Rs42.4 billion for development and Rs66.25 billion for non-development expenditure.

For upcoming fiscal year, the government allocated Rs66 billion (Rs66,025.000 million) for recurring and Rs44.17 billion (Rs44178.907 million) for development schemes.

Last month, vice chancellors and HEC officials were highly upset, when they came to know that Indicative Budget Ceilings (IBC) showed that only Rs30 billion had been allocated for higher education’s recurring grant for the FY 2022-23.

According to budgetary documents, Rs44.17 billion (higher than last year’s Rs42. 4billion) has been earmarked for 126 ongoing and 13 new development schemes.

Besides, Rs1500 million have been earmarked for strengthening of lab facilities in five leading engineering universities while Rs100 million for university campus at North Waziristan and Rs100 million for establishment of National Cyber Security Academy.

The government also allocated Rs350 million for setting up Dr AQ Khan Institute of Metallurgy and Emerging Sciences.

Metro bus services

The federal government has decided to fund the Green Line and Blue Line Metro bus services in Islamabad as Rs1,500 million have been earmarked for them for the financial year 2022-23.

According to the budget document, Rs1,000 million has been earmarked for the Rawat-Faizabad metro bus project (blue line) and Rs500 million for the Bhara Kahu-Faizabad metro (green line) for the upcoming fiscal year.

Both projects will be given Rs10 billion each in the coming years. An official of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) said proper and designated corridors and stations will be set up along the routes of both projects.

Recently, during a meeting held at the CDA headquarters, officials discussed that passengers should be charged Rs50 for using both bus services whereas those travelling from G.T. Road to Airport should be charged Rs100. Out of the 30 buses that have arrived from China, 10 will be plied on the Blue Line, five will be plied on the Green Line whereas 15 buses will be plied on the Peshawar Mor to Airport route.

However, final decision regarding fares will be made after approval of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who will be given a presentation in the coming days by the civic authority.

Education ministry

The government has earmarked Rs7.23 billion for the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training for 25 ongoing and new schemes.

According to the budgetary documents, Rs1.24 billion have been earmarked for four new schemes, including setting up 250 vocational institutions costing Rs3 billion for which Rs1 billion have been allocated.

Moreover, Rs144 million will be spent on the sustainability of computer labs established by the Universal Service Fund along with retention of 202 computer teachers in girls schools and colleges of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE). An amount of Rs100 million has been set aside for the establishment of a teacher training institute.

For ongoing projects, Rs382.61 million will be utilised on provision of basic educational missing facilities in FDE’s schools and colleges, Rs101 million on a pilot project on improving recruitment and on boarding of teachers in FDE schools, Rs200m on establishment of the directorate general of religious education and Rs100 million on establishment of FG College of Home Economics, F-11.

Similarly, Rs47 million will be provided for the establishment of Islamabad Model College for Boys at G-13.

Science & technology

The government has allocated Rs5.71 billion for various projects of Science, Technology and Research Division in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2022-23.

According to the budgetary documents, Rs19 million have been earmarked for 34 ongoing schemes and Rs5.52 billion for one new project.

Among the ongoing schemes, Rs400 million will be spent on the gene editing of biological agents for nutritional biochemical and therapeutical purpose, Rs380 million on digital transformation, strengthening and automation of PCSIR and Rs360 million on development of computer controlled fermentors ad production of biochemicals and bioproducts.

Another Rs351.21 million have been earmarked for the establishment of facilities for industrial production of nanomaterials at Latif Ebrahim Jamal Nanotechnology Centre and Rs350 million each on the establishment of material resource centre and development of additive manufacturing and reverse engineering centre at PCSIR.

Moreover, Rs300 million will be spent on each for science talent farming scheme for young students (Phase-I) and launching of STEM in Pakistan, Phase-I and Rs286.41 million for strengthening of oceanographic research sub-station at Gwadar.

Rawal Dam

The federal government has earmarked Rs200 million for Rawal Lake water treatment.

According to budgetary document, total cost of the project titled Korang River and Rawal Lake water treatment plant is 3.9 billion and for upcoming year Rs 200 has been allocated.

Under the said project, the Capital Development Authority (CAD) is supposed to install three sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the Rawal dam’s catchment area to stop the flow of contaminated water into the reservoir.

Plants are to be built in lower Shahdara, Bari Imam and near Banigala. It may be pointed out here that whenever this project is started, it would require 14 months to complete and will treat 9.6 million gallons of water daily.

Last year, the CDA had called bids, which were opened in July last year, but the contract could not be awarded within the stipulated time due to technical reasons.

According to CDA officials, the PC-I was prepared on the direction of the Planning Commission as an engineering procurement and construction (EPC) mode project, which meant that its design and engineering would be handled by an EPC contractor.

Capital police

An increase of Rs973.66 million was made in the budget of the capital police for the year 2022-23.

According to budget documents, over Rs11.29 billion have been allocated for the police compared to Rs10.31 billion in the outgoing fiscal year.

However, the budget for the Safe City Islamabad was slashed to Rs253.41 million from Rs269.57 billion.

An amount of Rs6.07 million has been allocated to each of the police stations compared to Rs6.5m in the year 2021-22.

The allocation for the Islamabad Traffic Police was slashed to Rs63.18 million from Rs67.52 million for its operating expenses. However, an increase was made in transfer, repair and maintenance budget.

The budget for the Special Branch was also decreased to Rs19.05m from Rs20.35m. The operating expenses were slashed while repair and maintenance cost was increased.

The budget of the Security Division was cut to Rs123.32m from Rs131.82m.

The investigation wing will get Rs28.86m against Rs30.81m as the operating expenses.

The Counter-Terrorism Department has been allocated Rs669.16m against Rs673.06m of the ongoing year.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2022