ECC okays Rs6bn grant for 7th census

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet has approved a supplementary grant of Rs 6 billion for the 7th population and housing census.

Against the total demand of Rs34 billion, the government has so far released Rs22 billion to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) in the fiscal year 2021-22 and FY2022-23 and now another Rs6 billion were approved as Technical Supplementary Grant (TSG) so the total funding could touch Rs28 billion.

So far it is not yet known about the ultimate fate of this first-ever digital census is because the population growth shown by Sindh and Balochistan posed serious questions about the authenticity of the population census. There were certain ministries/divisions as well as presidency, who were required additional funds as TSG for provision of 150 per cent executive allowance for their employees, as this provision was not budgeted on the occasion of the approval of the budget for the outgoing fiscal year.

According to official announcement made by Ministry of Finance after the ECC meeting stating that Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Ishaq Dar chaired the meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, on Monday.

Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Masood Malik, SAPM on Finance Tariq Bajwa, SAPM on Revenue Tariq Mehmood Pasha, federal secretaries and other senior officers attended the meeting.

The ECC considered and approved the following Technical Supplementary grants:

i. Rs6.00 billion as TSG in favour of Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives for conduct of 7th Population & Housing Census.

ii. Rs63.60 million as TSG in favour of Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to meet its liabilities.

iii. Rs222.037 million as TSG in favour of Ministry of Aviation to meet its ERE expenditure.

iv. Rs69.5 million as TSG in favour of Ministry of Housing and Works for Islamabad High Court building and Judges residences.

v. Rs60.0 million as TSG in favour of President’s Secretariat to meet its employee related expenses.

vi. Rs22.560 million as TSG in favour of Ministry of Climate Change for employee related expenses.

vii. Rs1 billion as TSG for Frontier Corps KP (North) and Rs400 million as TSG for Frontier Corps KP (South) to meet the pending liabilities of ration bills.

viii. Rs429.420 million and Rs7,525.133 million as TSG in favour of Ministry of Interior for employee related expenses.

ix. Rs12.30 million as TSG in favour of National Security Division to meet its employee related expenses.

x. Rs1,303.85 million as TSG in favour of Ministry of National Health Services & Coordination to meet its liabilities.

xi. Rs300 million as loan for Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) to pay salaries and pensions with direction to Ministry of National Food Security & Research to find out a permanent solution to the issue.

xii. Rs4 billion as TSG in favour of Ministry of Aviation as markup payment support to PIAC.