ISLAMABAD -  The Ministry of Planning and Development has directed the ministries and divisions to surrender their unutilised allocated amount to the planning ministry for completion of fast-moving projects, it is learnt reliably here on Sunday.

The government wants to transfer the unutilised amount from slow or dead projects, of the ministries and divisions, to the fast moving projects, official source told The Nation.

Usually the ministry surrenders their unutilised amount to the treasury. However, now the planning ministry has asked them to surrender unutilised amount to it, the official said. Earlier during the second quarter of the current fiscal, the planning ministry has given the deadline of the December 31, 2016 to the ministries and divisions to approve their unapproved projects. “The ministries and divisions were asked to approve or at least submit their unapproved projects to the ministry of planning for approval by due dates otherwise the funds allocated for the projects in Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2016-17) will be transferred to other projects,” the official added.

Now it has been directed by the federal government that no amount should be lapsed or return to the treasury but instead will be transferred to the fast moving projects, the official said. The government needs a large amount of money for some project particularly for the roads under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other infrastructure projects. Some ministries are really slow in the utilisation of PSDP and it seems that majority of their allocated PSDP will be lapsed if it was not transferred on time to other projects, the official said.

For example, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research has utilised only 8 percent of the total allocation PSDP of Rs1,500 million. “As per our estimates the Ministry of Food Security can hardly utilise Rs600 million during the remaining month of the current fiscal,” the official said. The amount from such ministries will be transferred to the fast moving projects.

The official said that as per the estimates there are billions of rupees of unutilised amount which could be surrendered to the planning. “Currently we don’t have the exact estimates of such amount, however it will be more than Rs30 billion,” the official said. Even the planning ministry has billion of rupees in the head of unapproved and other projects, the official added.

“In my opinion for the proper utilisation of PSDP amount, the ministries and divisions should transfer the unutilised amount to the planning ministry by the end of March, so it can be used for the completion of important projects,” the official added.

FAWAD YOUSAFZAI