Annual Plan Co-ordination Committee (APCC) has approved Rs 2.113 trillion for the next fiscal year Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) with Rs 65 billion allocation for different Prime Minister''s programmes. Of the total Rs 2.113 trillion PSDP for the next fiscal year, federal component is Rs 1.001 trillion and provincial component is Rs 1.112 trillion.
Finance Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa voiced concerns, after the meeting that the projects proposed by his province were not included in the federal PSDP. Talking to media after the daylong meeting of the APCC, Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal said the APCC also reviewed economic performance for the ongoing fiscal year and proposed a 6 per cent GDP growth target for the next fiscal year against 5.28 per cent growth achieved this year.
Sources said that Rs 1.001 trillion federal PSDP for the next fiscal year includes Rs 352 billion for federal ministries, Rs 323 billion for the National Highways Authority, Rs 60 billion for power sector, Rs 45 billion for Prime Minister''s Global SDGs Achievement Programme, Rs 20 billion for Prime Minister''s Initiatives, Rs 50 billion for special federal development programme, Rs 27 billion special provision for completion of CPEC projects and Rs 7 billion for ERRA. Additionally, an amount of Rs 45 billion has been allocated for relief and rehabilitation of TDPs and Rs 45 billion for security enhancement as well as Rs 25 billion for Gas Infrastructure Development Fund.
Ahsan Iqbal said Rs 1.001 trillion allocation of PSDP is the highest in the history and would be utilised to complete the energy and infrastructure projects in the CPEC. He further stated that Rs 323 billion have been allocated for the infrastructure projects to complete connectivity projects on fast track. The minister added that higher education sector allocation has been increased more than twice during the last four years from Rs 14 billion in 2012-13 to Rs 35 billion, and allocation for water sector projects, Diamer Bhasha Dam and Munda Dam, has also been made in the federal PSDP.
Ahsa Iqbal further stated that provincial PSDP is Rs 1.112 trillion for the next fiscal year and maintained that increase in the PSDP has been made on the basis of available fiscal space and it would not have any impact on the fiscal deficit. "Fiscal space was created due to increase in revenue," the Minister for Planning and Development added.
The minister also maintained that the government is also taking measures in the budget to increase growth in exports in the next fiscal year. He said that decline in exports was global phenomena and Pakistan was also affected. "Export sector is a big challenge because of contraction in US economy," he said, adding that next fiscal year current account deficit is expected to be $2.4 billion against $1.7 billion for the current fiscal year.
"We have brought 12 schemes but not a single one was included in the PSDP," said KP Minister for Finance while taking to media. He said the people of KP are being meted out a step-motherly treatment, while citing that only two projects out of 42 proposed by the KP government were included in PSDP last year. He continued that a token allocation has been made for Chashma Right Bank Canal against Rs 130 billion proposed by the provincial government and complained that KP was neither being given Net Hydel Profit nor National Finance Commission due share. He posed a question whether the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are not the part of Pakistan or they have not been affected by militancy, floods and TDPs.
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