June 28: The projection made by the National Planning Commission for the government’s medium-term expenditure structure for the next three years states that expenditure from the state coffers will to be around Rs 5800 billion. Out of the total projection, the share of current expenditure will be much more than the size of capital expenditure. The commission has projected that the current expenditure will be around Rs 3600 billion and the capital expenditure will be only Rs 1200 billion.

This figure confirms the fact that the National Planning Commission or the government is thinking of giving continuity to the way it has been allocating budget without paying attention to the needs of the country. It seems that a lot of effort is needed to improve the structure.

First of all, there is a need to make extensive reductions in the current expenses of the government. Some government offices are being scrapped and merged as per the budget announcement for the next fiscal year. By speeding up this process in the future, other unproductive offices should also be scrapped.

Similarly, it is said that the federal government has more employees than necessary. Therefore, the employees of the federal government should be adjusted at the state and local levels, and the state should not be burdened financially by just increasing the number of employees. Although there is no doubt that the state should provide social security, we cannot ignore the fact about the state’s capacity. Therefore, the spending on programs without any returns cannot be justified on any basis.

The problems will exacerbate if we continue to delay the plans and programs to boost the economy. Otherwise, there is no guarantee that the state treasury will not be used up in current expenditure in the future if the current trend continues.