Infrastructure expenditures: KP outsmarts the rest

While the infrastructure expenditures of the federal, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan governments dipped in the first two quarters of the current fiscal year, spending by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government witnessed an increase of 128 percent.
The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) released by Ministry of Finance has said that spending on infrastructure projects, including railways, roads and bridges, in the first two quarters of the current fiscal year witnessed a decline of 16.29 percent. The expenditure on infrastructure declined to Rs 149 billion during the first two quarters of the current fiscal year from Rs 178 billion for the same period a year before.
The federal government''s spending on infrastructure has declined to Rs 78 billion in first six months of the current fiscal year from Rs 93 billion for the same period of the last fiscal year while the government of Punjab''s expenditure contracted to Rs 51 billion from Rs 71 billion.
However, there was an increase of 128 percent in infrastructure expenditure of KP government during the first two quarters. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government''s expenditure on infrastructure increased to Rs 16.753 billion during the period under review from Rs 6.9 billion for the same period of the last fiscal year. The infrastructure spending by Sindh government has declined from Rs 3.7 billion to Rs 1.2 billion and Balochistan government from Rs 3.090 billion to Rs 1.6 billion.
The spending by the federal government and provinces on environment, water supply and sanitation increased to Rs 22.19 billion in the first two quarters of the current fiscal year from Rs 19 billion for the same period of the last fiscal year. Education spending increased to Rs 310 billion in the current fiscal year from Rs 281 billion with spending by Punjab government increased from Rs 110.353 billion to Rs 135.760 billion, KP government''s spending swelled from Rs 44.357 billion to Rs 54.532 billion, the Sindh government''s spending on education raised to Rs 62.923 billion from Rs 60.134 billion and Balochistan government''s expenditure surged to Rs 19.203 billion from Rs 18 billion.
However, the federal government''s spending on education decreased from Rs 47.546 billion to Rs 38.827 billion. The spending of federal and provincial governments on health increased from Rs 93.401 billion during the first quarter of the last fiscal year to Rs 111.867 billion in the same period of current fiscal year and expenditure on law and order increased to Rs 144 billion from Rs 130.819 billion for the same period of last fiscal year.