Islamabad, Oct. 24 : Pakistan will receive over 800-million-dollars as aid under the Kerry-Lugar Bill by March next year, as the first tranche from disbursements is likely to arrive in December, the country’s Finance Secretary Salman Siddique has said.

The Daily Times quoted Siddique as saying that the disbursements would be used to alleviate poverty and reduce some of the budgetary burdens on the economy.

The inflow of disbursements will be utilised for small and medium-size schemes which have already been approved, he added.

“We are persuading the US administration to allocate maximum funds through official channels instead of NGOs,” he added.

Speaking about the defence budget, Siddique said that the military budget would not be increased despite the military offensive in South Waziristan.

He added that 2.5 billion rupees were recently given to the NWFP government for the Internally Displaced Persons living in transactional camps.

“The government has also released 11.5 billion rupees for the IDPs of Malakand during the current fiscal year,” he said, adding that 50 billion rupees had been allocated for the welfare of IDPs in the federal budget 2009-10.

Regarding budgetary performance during the first quarter, Siddique said the fiscal deficit would be 1.5 per cent of GDP against the IMF’s targeted 1.2 per cent. (ANI)