Austerity Measures by Federal Government

Austerity Policy and  Important federal government decisions to reduce public Money spending

The federal government has announced a fiscal austerity policy for the current financial year.

Federal Government in view of Reduction of the Expenses of the government has taken a number of steps which will affect all the Departmental staff, officers and the public who will be visiting the department for the issues because the government has imposed a cut on the number of basic necessities and utilities.  

In the context of Austerity Measures in the Usage of public money, the federal Government has issued the policy with the financial management and observance of financial management, without compromising the goals and function of the department and activities.

1. The federal government has banned the purchase of all types of vehicles from the current and development budgets in the current financial year 2022-23 to reduce government expenditure.
2. According to the fiscal austerity policy, only ambulances, buses for educational institutions and solid waste vehicles can be purchased.
3.  Apart from the posts required for development projects, all other types of new posts have been banned. 
4. Overseas medical treatment at government expense has been banned.
5. Travel abroad for government employees at government expense has also been banned, 
6. But Government employees will only be able to make mandatory visits.
7. All kinds of official lunches, dinners and high tea except for the foreign delegates and delegations are banned.
8. The purchase of newspapers, magazines and periodicals for government officials and employees at government expense has also been stopped.
9. The Principal Accounting Officers of all the Ministries and Divisions will have to reduce the utilization of other utilities including electricity, gas and telephone by 10% under the austerity policy.
10. Unnecessary travel has also been stopped to reduce the use of government vehicles by government officials and employees.
11. There has been talk of promoting government meetings through zoom and videolink.
12.  It has decided to eliminate vacancies, non-productive vacancies and redundant vacancies.
13. The federal government has set up a 10-member special austerity committee headed by the federal finance minister to monitor the implementation of the fiscal austerity policy۔
14. The has also issued terms of reference for the austerity monitoring committee.