NEC approves Rs2,709bn development outlay for FY24
Business
Allocations include Centre's Rs950bn PSDP and Rs1,559bn of the provinces
LAHORE (Muhammad Hassan Raza) – The National Economic Council (NEC) on Tuesday approved a total outlay of Rs2,709 for development projects in the upcoming 2023-24 budget.
As Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired the meeting, the NEC decided that the federal government’s Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the next fiscal year would stand at Rs1,150 billion out of which an amount of Rs200bn was fixed under public-private partnership mode while the remaining Rs950bn would be directly spent by the Centre.
On the other hand, the total development outlay for the provinces as approved by the NEC is Rs1,559bn. When comes to the province-wise details, Sindh tops the list with Rs617bn while the amount allocated by Balochistan is Rs248bn for their annual development programme.
However, the amount reserved for Punjab [Rs426bn] and Balochistan [Rs248bn] is four months only, as the caretaker governments are currently managing the affairs in these two provinces. They are going to present their respective budgets for a four-month period.
Meanwhile, the meeting also gave approval to the revised development budget for the current financial year [2022-23] – the Centre’s PSDP Rs714 and Rs1,598 for the provinces.
For 2023-24, there is a 17pc increase total development outlay which covers a total of 1,182 schemes – 311 new and 871 ongoing.
Federal ministers Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal Syed Naveed Qamar and Asad Mehmood as well as Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Chief Minister Azam Khan attended the meeting. Punjab Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi was part of the discussions via video-link.
Apart from the one each representative from the four provinces [besides the chief ministers], Balochistan Senior Minister Noor Muhammad Dummar was also among the participants.
Meanwhile, the meeting also approved the GDP growth rate for 2022-23 at 0.3 per cent and for 2023-24 at 3.5pc besides Rs80 billion under the Prime Ministers’ Special Initiatives.
The meeting was informed that measures suggested for the National Energy Conservation Plan would result in saving $1 billion under fuel import bill annually.
Ahsan Iqbal in his briefing said that the total volume of the country’s economy would be increased to $1,000 billion by following a transformational model.
