Islamabad: Recent media reports have presented aggregate figures regarding Civil Government expenditure, which may have created a misleading impression about the federal spending’s nature and scale.

According to Press Information Department, a significant portion of the reported increase in expenditure relates to employee compensation adjustments announced in the budget, as well as allocations for essential public health interventions, particularly the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). When these factors are accounted for, the actual increase in operational non-employee expenditure remains minimal.

During the first nine months of FY2024-25, Civil Government expenditure stood at Rs. 559 billion, with Rs. 388 billion allocated to employee-related expenditure and Rs. 171 billion to non-employee-related expenditure. In the corresponding period of FY2025-26, expenditures rose to Rs. 629 billion, including Rs. 427 billion for employee-related costs and Rs. 202 billion for non-employee-related costs.

The overall increase in Civil Government expenditure is 12.5 percent. A breakdown reveals that employee-related expenditure rose by approximately 10 percent, driven primarily by salary and pay adjustments from the federal budget. Non-employee-related expenditure increased by Rs. 31 billion, from Rs. 171 billion to Rs. 202 billion.

Crucially, Rs. 29 billion of the increase in non-employee-related expenditure was allocated for the EPI, a key public health initiative aimed at safeguarding children from preventable diseases. After adjusting for the EPI allocation, the actual increase in non-employee-related expenditure is approximately Rs. 2 billion.

The presentation of expenditure figures without these essential components and public welfare allocations does not provide a complete or accurate picture of government spending trends.