Rs. 10 b released to settle bills on work done: Finance Ministry

Thursday, 26 January 2017 00:14 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Refuting allegations that money has not been released for development activities undertaken in 2016, the Finance Ministry yesterday said that Rs. 10 billion has been released to line ministries for work done in the last quarter.

Issuing a statement, the Finance Ministry said that a large portion of the money for the bills submitted has been released during the year itself.

“It is the normal accounting practice to make payments for bills sent in late in the first quarter of the following year.”

Accordingly for bills received late for work done in 2016, a total of Rs. 10 billion has been released to line ministries, the statement said. It also highlighted that reports of delays in releasing the money by the Treasury Department is false.

Further, to ensure transparency on payments made for bills received late, the Finance Ministry has presented a schedule of all outstanding payments to the Cabinet of ministers earlier this month. The Cabinet was also informed that apart from the Rs. 10 billion released, steps are being taken to release money to pay the remaining outstanding bills.

Further, the Finance Ministry has released a total of Rs. 5933 million to Provincial Councils, under the ‘Lagama Pasala Hodama Pasala’ project, and another Rs. 2600 million has been released to the Education ministry to settle all other outstanding bills, the statement said.