The Annual Plan Co-ordination Committee (APCC), scheduled to meet in the first week of May to finalise the size of the Public Sector Development Pro-gramme (PSDP) for the next fiscal year, will now after the general elections. Sources said that the APPC meeting was to consider Rs 450 billion federal PSDP. The provincial representatives of Planning and Finance Divisions will also attend the APCC meeting along with proposals for their provincial development budgets.
An official said that the Finance Ministry had completed budget-related work on current and development side and would convene the meeting whenever directed to do so. The federal PDSP included Rs 258.9 billion for federal ministries and divisions and for corporation, Rs 39 billion for Wapda (Power) and Rs 65 billion for the National Highway Authority (NHA).
The proposed development spending for special areas is Rs 28.1 billion for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Division, Rs 18.5 billion for States and Frontier Regions Division, Rs 13.5 billion for Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) and Rs 5 billion for PWP-I and Rs 22 billion for PWP-II. Sources also said that the Finance Ministry had also finalised a second budget strategy paper with some changes in the light of changing the base year from 1999-2000 to 2005-06 by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).