ISLAMABAD - The government’s spending on poverty reduction programmes had gone down in the previous fiscal year (FY2019) despite inflation rate had increased in last one and half year.
The PTI led coalition government had spent Rs3.099 trillion on Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) in FY2019 as against Rs3.167 trillion in the preceding year showing reduction of over two percent, the latest data of the ministry of finance showed.
Spending on health, education, law and order, subsidies, agriculture, construction of roads, rural development, low cost housing and other sectors are part of the PRSP expenditures.
However, a major chunk of spending was utilised on the non-development expenditures including salaries payment and transportation charges, according to the official documents of the ministry of finance.
The breakup of PSRP spending showed that the government spending on population planning had recorded at Rs14.328 billion in FY2019 as compared to Rs20.451 billion showing reduction of Rs6.213 billion in one year. Similarly, spending on social security and welfare had stood at Rs20.9 billion.
The spending on agriculture has recorded at Rs256.697 billion in the previous financial year as against Rs277.867 billion in the preceding year showing reduction.
The government spent Rs430.063 billion on maintaining law and order, up by Rs39.507 billion from the last year. Almost the entire amount, Rs424.26 billion, was spent on running expenses. The increase was across the board.
Overall spending of federal and provincial governments on education sector had recorded at Rs868.022 billion during FY2019, which is 10.19 percent higher than the spending of it previous year.
However, a major portion of education budget Rs778.495 billion was spent on the current expenditures including payment of salaries and other expenditures. Only, Rs89.527 billion was spent on the development projects of the education sector.
The spending of federal government on education sector had recorded minor decline. The centre had increased to Rs125.923 billion during FY2019 as against Rs126.923 billion of the preceding year registering a slight decrease. In provinces, Punjab had spent Rs371.815 billion in previous fiscal year as compared to Rs340.8 of a year ago.
However, the spending of Sindh on education had recorded a decrease of 2 percent and consumed Rs162.602 billion during FY2019 as against Rs166 billion spent in fiscal year 2018.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KP)'s government spending on education sector had increased at Rs152.711 billion during FY2019 from Rs142.643 billion of the same period of previous year, showing a growth of 7.06 percent. The Balochistan government had spent Rs55.327 billion on education during FY2019.
According to the data, Health spending came in at Rs421.778 billion in FY2019, an increase of Rs5.311 billion or 1.28percent from the previous year. Out of this, Rs363.154 billion was on account of current expenditures, mostly for salaries and transportation.
The federal government's spending on health has dropped by 22.21 percent, as it had released Rs27.108 billion during FY2019 as compared to Rs34.85 billion of the same period of a year ago. However, the Punjab government's spending on health had increased to Rs218.925 billion in last fiscal year from Rs218.898billion of the last year.
The KP's government spending has reduced by 3.18 percent to Rs55.67 billion during FY2019 as against Rs57.496 billion of the corresponding months of previous year. Similarly, the Sindh's government spending on education had also enhanced to 17.2 billion during FY2019 from Rs98.145 billion. The Balochistan government had spent Rs21.907 billion on health.
