A meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has approved a supplementary grant of Rs828 million for employees-related and other operational expenditure of Special Communication Organization (SCO) during the ongoing fiscal year.

Sources in the Finance Ministry said that a proposal was brought before the last ECC meeting dated April 1, 2022 by the Ministry of Information Technology and Commission. The meeting presided over by former Finance Minister Shaukat Train gave approval of supplementary grant after it was informed that the proposal was submitted with the concurrence of the Finance Division.

The ECC was informed that by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication that the case for Technical Supplementary Grant (TSG) was submitted by the SCO for non-development, current expenditure – in budget for 2021-2022 stating that an amount of Rs3.368 billion was allocated for the current fiscal year against expenditure of Rs3.940 billion for the last financial year 2020-21.

Additionally, fund provision for ERE pay and allowance is Rs2.061 billion for the current fiscal year 2021-2022, whereas, last year actual ERE expenditure was Rs2.454 billion, which clearly reflects a shortfall of Rs392.36 million in the current fiscal year 2021-2022 over the expenditure of last financial year. The meeting was further informed that shortfall in ERE and Operational Expenses (Payment of Electricity Bills and POL, etc) for 2021-2022 comes to Rs1.133 billion.

The case for TSG was taken up with Finance Division for their concurrence to bridge the shortfall in the non-development expenditure and the proposal was put up to the ECC after the concurrence of the Finance Division.

The meeting was informed that the SCO established in July 1976 for the operation, expansion, maintenance and modernisation of telecom system in Gilgit-Baltistan including Azad Jammu and Kashmir is managed by a Project Management Board under the chairmanship of Inspector General Communication and Information Technology, GHQ, Rawalpindi and its administrative control is with the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on April 06, 2022.