ISLAMABAD: The government is likely to allocate Rs6 billion for 31 development projects including one new of the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for 2023-24, official documents revealed.

A major chunk of development projects worth Rs1.834 billion which is around 30 percent of the total is proposed for the Special Communication Organization (SCO), which operates in the Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has submitted proposed budget of over Rs16.5 billion for the fiscal year 2023-24.The overall proposed budget includes developmental and non-developmental expenses of the ministry and its affiliated institutions.

The total size of the budget includes non-developmental expenditure of Rs10.5 billion and Rs6 billion for the PSDP.

According to the PSDP document, the federal government has proposed an amount of Rs5,990 million for 30 ongoing schemes in the next financial year. An amount of Rs10 million has been proposed for a new project in 2023-24.

An amount of Rs230 million has been proposed for the Smart Office Federal Ministries and Departments project, whereas, Rs150 million has been proposed for the IT Certification project. The federal government has proposed Rs50 million for Crime Analytics and Smart Policing in Pakistan and Rs548 million has been proposed for Cyber Security for Digital Pakistan project.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023