Sindh budget: Rs 349 billion development outlay proposed

The size of the development outlay of the Sindh budget has been proposed at Rs 349 billion for the next financial year, ie, 2018-19. The current outlay shows a slight increase of around 1.50 percent compared to current year's budget.
In the last financial year 2017-18, Sindh government allocated Rs 344 billion for development outlay. The breakup of the current year's development outlay shows that Rs 244 billion were set aside for provincial Annual Development Plan, a sum of Rs 30 billion earmarked for districts development schemes and Rs 27.3 allocated for schemes financed by federal government's Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). Foreign assisted projects' total allocation stood at Rs 42.7 billion.
The proposed outlay for Rs 349 billion for the next year indicates that Rs 244 billion for provincial ADP, registering no increase compared to current year and Rs 30 billon for the provincial development schemes, same to what was set aside during the on-going financial year.
Federal PSDP- funded development schemes' proposed allocations registered some a meager increase of few billion rupees which stood at Rs 30.1 billion compared to Rs 27.3 billion in the current year. Foreign assisted projects' allocations have been proposed at Rs 45 billion.
According to sources, as many as 195 new development schemes have been proposed in the development outlay for the next fiscal year, higher than around 152 development schemes in the on-going fiscal year.
Revised forecast for development expenditure in Sindh brought down the figures to Rs 240 billion compared to Rs 344 billion allocated in the budget 2017-18.
All the three major heads of development expenditure - ADP, district schemes & federal PSDP-funded projects registered downward trend in the revised forecast of 2017-18. The ADP showed the decrease to Rs 185.2 billion compared to Rs 244 billion. District development schemes' allocations went down to Rs 29 billion from Rs 30 billion and federal PSDP project saw a huge decline to Rs 11.8 in revised forecast compared to Rs 27.3 set aside the development budget for the current financial year. Foreign assisted projects also saw a huge decrease in the revised forecast to Rs 14 billion from Rs 42.7 billion set aside in the current year's budget.