Not a single government department in Punjab reached its development targets for the current financial year, according to the third quarter, financial report presented in the provincial assembly of the debate after the budget.

The report exposes a significant gap between budget distributions and actual expenses across all departments, which emphasizes inefficiency in funding during the third quarter of the financial year 2024-25.

According to the report, the Punjab government awarded a total of RS488.43B for development in the 3rd quarter, but only RS355.43B was used.

Departmental expenses

Several departments in Punjab fell significantly briefly to use their assigned development budgets for the third quarter of the financial year. For example, the agricultural department received RS3b, but managed to use only RS1,21B.

The revenue was awarded the RS30.5B, but only used RS4.79b. The Department of the Communication and Work Department used RS2,91B out of its RS4,62B allocation and mirrored the education department, which also received RS4,62B, but used only RS2,91B. The finance department used RS1.33b from its RS2.3b budget. Meanwhile, the forest, the Wildlife & Fisheries Department, priested better than most, and used RS296.04b out of a massive RS324.24b allocation.

The health department used RS1,26b of its RS1,98B budget, while the home department used only RS2,18B from RS25.5B assigned. The Department of Housing & Public Health Engineering saw RS1.22B earmarked for development, with only RS670m used.

Similarly, the industry, trade and investment department used only RS270m of its RS1.64B budget. The irrigation department used RS5.85B of its RS19.5B allocation, and the Department of Livestock & Dairy Development managed to use only RS930m from its RS1,97B budget.

Limited progress in other departments

Department of Law and Parliamentary Affairs used RS1B of its RS1.41B allocation, while the miner and mineral department used RS12.06b out of RS31B. The police department was among the better artists who used RS13.93b from its RS16.25B budget.

During various expenses, RS24.17B was awarded, but only RS7.65B was used.

The results have given rise to concern about bureaucratic inefficiencies and a lack of performance in development planning, especially when the province is struggling with socio -economic challenges. The report is expected to stray harsh questions in the ongoing discussions about the assembly.