ISLAMABAD: The Annual Plan Coordination Committee is all set to accord approval to Rs900 billion outlay for the federal development programme on Friday (today), including lunching of Special Regional Equalization Programme with an allocation of Rs133 billion for the upcoming budget.
The Planning Commission could not finalise the GDP growth projection for the next fiscal year as discussions were underway to fix the next fiscal year target between 4.5 to 5 percent after in-depth consultation and ownership of all stakeholders. The working paper was sent to ministries/ departments and provinces without envisaging the GDP growth figures on Thursday evening; however, inflation is projected at over 8.2 percent for the next fiscal year.
Its pathetic that the Planning Commission was continuously holding the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) meetings on frequent basis to include many more projects into the list of Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) and even on Thursday one CDWP meeting was held and another was scheduled to be held before the National Economic Council (NEC) in last ditch efforts to insert many politically-motivated projects into the PSDP list. It will jack up throw forward many more, which stood at Rs8 trillion and according to some sources around 20 to 25 percent new projects would be made part of PSDP from the next fiscal year.
The Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) will recommend to the National Economic Council (NEC) outlay of Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) of Rs900 billion, including Rs101 billion as foreign aid for the upcoming budget 2021-22. The PTI led government has decided launching of Special Regional Equalization Programme with proposed allocation of Rs133 billion, including Rs54 billion for merged districts of FATA into KP, Rs45 billion for Special Areas in AJK and GB and Rs34 billion for Less Developed Areas (North and South Balochistan packages, Sindh Development Plan and GB plan).
Official documents showed that ironically the PSDP utilization remained pathetic during the current fiscal year 2020-21 and stood at just Rs406 billion till May 25, 2021 against released funds of Rs560 billion in the current fiscal year. Out of total allocated PSDP funds of Rs650 billion, the rupee component utilization was just standing at Rs319 billion against authorized funds of Rs473 billion, showing utilization of just 67 percent while foreign aid utilization was 100 percent as 87 billion were released and the full amount was utilized. The government argued that the utilization of development funds remained low owing to COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the development activities adversely.
The size of PSDP for 2021-22 is Rs900 billion, including foreign aid of Rs101 billion. The projects with 80 percent expenditures have been proposed to be fully financed for completion by June 2022. The government has proposed allocation of 57 percent allocation for infrastructure sector as the allocation stands at Rs509.2 billion. The government has allocated Rs103.5 billion for energy sector, Rs99.4 billion for water sector, Rs265.345 billion for transport and communication including Viability Gap Fund (VGF) and Rs40.939 billion for Physical Planning and Housing Sector in the upcoming PSDP for 2021-22.
For the social sector, the government proposed allocation of Rs169.710 billion for the upcoming budget as it allocated Rs28 billion for health, Rs5.128 billion for education and training, Rs37 billion for Higher Education Commission (HEC), Rs15.261 billion for environment, Rs5.139 billion for manpower and employment, Rs74 billion for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which was run by PM’s discretionary funding through parliamentarians, and Rs5.179 billion for other projects.
The government has allocated Rs5.746 billion for governance projects. The PTI led government has proposed allocation of Rs29.396 billion for Science and Information Technology (IT) out of which the allocated funds for science were proposed at Rs12.204 billion and Rs17.191 billion for the IT sector in the coming budget.
The government proposed allocation of Rs15.505 billion in the coming budget out of which Rs3.473 billion were allocated for industries and Rs12.032 billion for neglected food and agriculture sector. The government also earmarked Rs37.407 billion for other requirements without mentioning any sector, indicating that the discretionary funds will be allocated keeping in view the requirements during the course of the next fiscal year.