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Thursday March 28, 2024

NEC to approve Rs1,813 bn uplift outlay on 24th

By Mehtab Haider
April 20, 2018

ISLAMABAD: The National Economic Council (NEC) has been convened under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on next Tuesday for granting approval to the national development outlay of Rs1,813 billion and macroeconomic framework for the next budget.

The NEC is all set to approve Rs300 billion less development outlay for the next budget as it would be fixed at Rs1,813 billion for upcoming budget 2018-19 against Rs2,113 billion approved on eve of the last budget for 2017-18.

“The NEC is scheduled to meet with PM in the chair on April 24 in order to approve national development plan, including federal share of the development allocation at Rs800 billion and provinces Rs1013 billion for the next budget 2018-19,” official sources confirmed to The News here on Thursday.

The federal PSDP has been envisaged at Rs800 billion, including Rs105 billion for three initiatives, including special development programme for TDPs & security arrangement, PM’s Initiatives and Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC). For TDPs development and security, the government is considering allocation Of Rs70 to Rs80 billion, Rs10 billion for PM’s Initiatives and remaining for GIDC for the next budget.

After return from abroad, Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal has been giving final touches to the national development plan under which the increased amount of PSDP by Rs50 billion would be distributed among the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, National Highway Authority (NHA), Pakistan Railways and water sector.

Earlier, the federal public sector development programme (PSDP) was proposed at Rs750 billion, but, after demands presented by Secretary Sohaib Siddiqui in forceful manner in front of PM, this amount was increased to Rs800 billion for the next budget.

The total development outlay was slashed down by Rs300 billion bringing it down from Rs2,113 billion in outgoing fiscal to Rs1,813 billion for 2018-19. The provinces share on development expenditures has gone up in comparison with the Centre with margin of Rs263 billion.

The Ministry of Planning, Development & Reforms has received total demand of Rs1,900 billion from line ministries/divisions for ongoing and new projects for PSDP 2018-19. Through consultative meetings, the total demand was rationalised at Rs1,500 billion. The Ministry of Planning approached the Finance Division to enhance the size of development budget to at least Rs1,300 billion so that all the sectors of economy may flourish equally and follow the trajectory of balanced growth.

The Ministry of Planning requested the ministries/divisions to prepare respective development portfolio adhering to guidelines as ongoing projects with 70 percent expenditures should be fully financed, foreign aided projects should be provided required rupee cover, CPEC projects on EPC should be allocated required funds and security related projects should be allocated demanded funds.

New projects, in order of priority and proposed allocation, should be at least 25 percent of the approved cost of the project as per PAC/NEC directions. In any case, allocations to the new projects should not be more than 10 per cent of the IBC allocated/awarded to each ministry/division.