The Civil government’s expenditure has reduced by Rs. 9 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (2019-20) compared to the same period of the last fiscal year (2018-19) claims the Ministry of Finance.

According to the report by the local newspaper, the expenditure of the civil government for the first quarter of the fiscal year (2019-20) has fallen by Rs. 9 billion.

The report quoted its sources saying:

The efforts are underway to make the grants and subsidies more effective through targeted dispensation. The development expenditure for the current fiscal year will be impact-based infrastructure spending in the neglected domains of power sector connectivity, renewable energy as well as regional connectivity and other avenues.

They further stated that the recommendations to prioritize PSDP’s spending for completion of ongoing projects will be implemented during the current and next financial year. In order to revamp the entire Public Financial Management System, Finance Division has presented the Public Finance Management (PFM) law which has been approved and enacted.

This law has put several controls and monitoring mechanisms on federal spending units, the cabinet, and the parliament. The committee under the PFM Act will oversee the implementation and secondary legislation has been notified. Finance Division is working on the introduction of pre-audit and internal audit systems within ministries.

Financing accounting and budgeting system (FABs) – IT enabler of financial transactions – is being upgraded to introduce asset accounting, projects and program accounting, commitment accounting and payroll management within the financial system.

The report said that the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy and framework have been approved and recently, the Fiscal Advisory Department of IMF extended technical facilitation to achieve structured implementation of TSA which revolves around efficient cash management, treasury management, and debt management.

Finance Division is also involved in the working of the Task Force on Restructuring of the federal government where realignment of federal entities is underway leading to merger, liquidation, and retention of selected entities.