Paper exercises of development expenditure

Over the past few years, almost everyone in Pakistan has personally experienced their incomes go down with the erosion of the rupee. It’s a tale all too familiar. Even those lucky enough to get regularly healthy increments now struggle to catch up with the levels of inflation. As a result, most people have been forced to live hand to mouth and cut any ‘frivolous’ expenditures. Somehow, our state has managed to be in a worse situation, albeit by a crisis manufactured by itself. After years of living beyond means and quick fixes, economic decay has seeped in. The Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) symbolises this crisis better than anything else. In the latest budget, the federal government proposed Rs1.15 trillion under PSDP for FY24 — the same outlay originally budgeted for FY19. During this period, the dollar has appreciated by about 135 per cent against the local currency, so obviously, each rupee is worth way less now. Yet, here we are.