ECC approves Rs250bn supplementary grant to adjust overspending by provinces

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tops the list with Rs214bn

ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – The Centre approved a huge supplementary grant of Rs250 billion for the outgoing financial year 2023-24 because of the overspending by the provinces with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa topping the list with Rs214bn.

A meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar approved the amount after a summary by the Finance Division noted that supplementary grant/technical supplementary grant was required to adjust the overspending by the provinces.

The ECC was informed that the existing ways and means advance limits for all four provinces stood at – Punjab Rs77bn, Sindh Rs39bn, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Rs31.3bn and Balochistan Rs17bn. An amount of Rs10 billion was allocated under the headways and means advances to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the current fiscal year.

However, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had availed Rs224 billion in advances, cumulatively, from ways and means, till May 24.

But the meeting was informed that the said expenditures would have no impact on the federal government’s overall fiscal deficit as the advances were availed for a brief period and “the SBP reverses the transactions together with mark-up as and when sufficient cash balance is available in the provincial governments’ accounts”.