The amount of budget allocated, released, and utilized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) during the last five Financial Years (FYs) is as under:
The budgetary allocations to the HEC under recurring and development grants for the FY 2019-20 are reflected below, which indicates an overall 8.14% reduction:
Note: The above data was shared by the Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood with the National Assembly on December 13, 2019 in response to a question by Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) lawmaker Jam Abdul Karim Bijar.
Shafqat Mahmood further told that House that Public Sector Universities are facing difficulties due to shortage of funds. He told that at the time of preparation of federal budget 2019-20, the HEC submitted overall requirement of Rs 103.550 billion jointly estimated with Finance Division under recurring grant for all universities and ongoing research activities. He said that a total of Rs 88.147 billion (Recurring: Rs 59.100 + Development: Rs 29.047) could finally be allocated to HEC for FY 2019-20. Accordingly, all Universities were provided lesser funding out of total recurring grant allocated to HEC.
The education minister further apprised the House that the HEC has reworked out minimum additional funding requirement of Universities to assuage them from financial difficulties during current year 2019-20.
The minister said that a ‘Summary to Cabinet’ has been sent by the HEC, through the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, requesting the federal government to provide Rs 21.380 billion as Supplementary Grant during the ongoing FY 2019-20.
In addition, he added that, all Universities have also been requested to approach respective provincial governments for enhanced contribution in Universities recurring budget for the year and undertake optimal financial controlling and management.
