{
  "id": 19435587,
  "title": "Development spending just 10.4pc of annual allocation in first four months of FY27, despite budget surplus",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/11/development-spending-just-10-4pc-of-annual-allocation-in-first-four",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-11-11T02:37:46.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dawn Business",
    "slug": "dawn-business",
    "url": "https://www.dawn.com/news/2043725/development-spending-just-104pc-of-annual-allocation-in-first-four-months-of-fy27-despite-budget-surplus"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the first four months of fiscal year 2026-27, the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) spending in Pakistan amounted to only 10.4% of the total Rs1 trillion allocation, according to the Ministry of Planning and Development. This low spending was despite a healthy 0.8% budget surplus in the first quarter. Excluding corporations, total PSDP expenditure by about 33 ministries and divisions was a meagre Rs74.65bn, or about 11% of the total allocation of Rs682bn. The power sector and the National Highways Authority spent Rs29bn or 9.3% of their budget allocation of Rs313bn for the whole year. The NHA could utilise only 5.8% or Rs13.3bn in four months against its annual allocation of Rs225bn, while the power sector was able to use Rs16bn or 18% of its Rs98bn allocation. Only eight ministries managed to spend more than Rs1bn each in the first four months, with the Water Resources Division leading at 18% of its Rs103bn annual allocation. Despite the budget surplus, the climate change division and National Food Security ministry spent only 10.4% and less than 1.5% of their respective allocations.",
  "summary": "https://www.dawn.com/news/2043633",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}