KARACHI, May 25(ABC): Instead of boosting the Higher Education Commission’s budget, which was already slashed by the PTI government, the newly established federal government has proposed cutting it by more than half to Rs30 billion for the fiscal year 2022–23, compared to the previous allocation of Rs65.25 billion.
The provisional indicative budgetary ceiling and revised estimates for 2021-22 are worth Rs65,250 million, according to a circular published by the Finance Division, while the budget projections for grants relating to the HEC are around Rs30,000 million.
The HEC has been asked to compile a budget statement in conformity with the specified budget for 2022-23 and submit it to the Finance Division’s director budget wing for entry. HEC authorities, on the other hand, sought Rs100 billion to cover expenses and ensure that research initiatives at public universities run smoothly.
The HEC officials say that the PTI government had already minimised the HEC budget due to which varsities across the country were facing a severe financial crunch. Therefore, a further cut in the budget will monetarily paralyse higher education in the country as majority of varsities have no capacity to generate funding for annual expenditures.
A top HEC official told the publication that the commission would be unable to provide grants to all state-run universities from the proposed provisional indicative budgetary ceiling and estimated budget for 2022-23. It is not enough to run even the affairs of the commission and at the same time keep research projects going at varsities. However, the commission will have the only option to entertain the universities being operated by the federal government, leaving aside the varsities that come under the jurisdiction of the provincial governments.