Pakistan Slashes Development Budget by Rs63 Billion, Total Cuts Reach Rs163 Billion

The federal government has made an additional cut of Rs63 billion to the development budget, further reducing public sector spending across multiple sectors.

According to sources, the reductions have affected key areas including water, education, health, railways, housing, IT, and telecommunications. The cuts were made to the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) by the Ministry of Finance.

Following the latest reduction, the total size of the PSDP has been brought down to Rs837 billion. Earlier in March, the government had already reduced the development budget by Rs100 billion, bringing the total cuts so far to Rs163 billion.

The March reduction was reportedly made to finance subsidies on petroleum products. Initially, the PSDP for the current fiscal year had been set at Rs1 trillion.