ISLAMABAD, June 05(ABC): The Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) on Saturday recommended the allocation of Rs2,184 billion for the National Development Plan of the National Economic Council (NEC) in the next budget 2022-23, including a federal development outlay of Rs800 billion and provincial development plans of Rs1,384 billion.
The Sindh and KP government ministers raised objections to the reduced allocation of funds for the federal Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) in their respective areas. The National Economic Council is now scheduled to meet under the chairmanship of PM Shehbaz Sharif on June 7 for approving the national development outlay and macroeconomic framework for the next budget.
The APCC also approved a macroeconomic framework for the next budget with a real GDP growth rate target of 5% for the next budget against 5.97% for the outgoing fiscal year.
The government has projected that inflation will remain in double digits but expected to remain in the range of 11.5%, however, many economists have termed the government-made projections on lower side in the context of stabilisation program being pursued under the advice of the IMF programme to withdraw fuel and energy subsidies and then raising taxation in the coming budget.
The federal Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for outgoing fiscal year 2021-22 was revised downward from Rs900 billion to Rs550 billion and in the working paper, it was projected that the actual utilisation of the PSDP funds would be standing at Rs498 billion till the end of June 2022.
The APCC, which met under the Chairmanship of Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday, approved the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) outlay of Rs800 billion for the next fiscal year 2022-23.
The government allocated Rs60 billion for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) achievement programme executed by the parliamentarians in the coming budget. The government inserted Mainline-1 (ML-1) as part of the PSDP and made allocation of just Rs5 billion in the next budget. The government allocated Rs18 billion for Diamer Bhasha Dam (for dam part) and Rs7 billion for its land acquisition. The total cost of the Bhasha Dam is estimated at Rs479.686 billion. For ERRA, the government made zero allocation in the next budget.
Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal told reporters after the APCC meeting that the PML-N-led government had left over Rs1,000 billion in 2017-18, which was reduced to Rs500 billion as the national exchequer was emptied. He said that now the government would finance all the projects of national importance. To a query, he said the PTI government achieved 5.97% growth mainly because of rebasing of national accounts.
