The federal government has approved a development budget of 1100 billion rupees for the financial year 2023-24, in which 950 billion rupees have been allocated for Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) and 150 billion rupees for public-private partnership, the minister said. Planning, Development and Development announced. Special initiative of Ahsan Iqbal on Friday.
The increase in the size of the budget reflects the government’s priority for national development and its objective of achieving economic growth. The government is also setting various targets for the next financial year, including a GDP growth rate of 3.5 percent, reduction in inflation and trade deficit, increase in exports and national savings.
Addressing the press conference, the federal minister said that out of the total budget, 950 billion rupees will be used under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP 2023-24) and 150 billion rupees will be used to implement various development schemes under the Public Private Partnership. .
Initially, he said, the finance ministry had proposed Rs 700 billion for PSDP 2023-24 which was grossly inadequate.
Therefore, we made a written request to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to increase the amount of the development budget to achieve economic development and the Prime Minister has approved the development budget of 1100 billion rupees.
In 2018, the minister said, he had presented a development budget of Rs 1,000 billion, and when the current government came to power last year, it was reduced to Rs 550 billion. Now after a period of five years, a development budget of 1100 billion rupees will come, which shows the priority of our national development.
The country is facing economic difficulties due to the failed policies of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, which allowed imports of luxury items worth $84 billion during its last year and accused friends of showing artificial growth. But the trade deficit, he added, reached $50 billion.
“This was a turning point that pushed the country into a severe economic crisis that consumed all foreign exchange reserves,” Ahsan added.
He said that when the present government assumed power last year, all PTI leaders were saying that the country would default in two to six months and a Sri Lanka-like situation would occur.
“But we are pulling the country out of crisis through import management and reform measures, despite the massive devastation caused by last year’s floods and the delayed program of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) by the grace of Allah.”
He said that as a result of this, Pakistan is gradually moving towards economic stability and foreign investors are coming to invest in various sectors.
Giving details of the targets set by the Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) for the next financial year, Iqbal said that 3.5 percent growth targets have been set for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and agriculture sector. are, manufacturing 4.3 percent and services sector. 3.6%
He said that according to the next year’s annual development plan, the inflation rate will be reduced from 29.2 percent to 21 percent. National savings will be increased from 12.5 percent to 13.4 percent, exports will be taken to over $30 billion compared to the current year’s projected $28 billion, imports are projected to be $58.7 billion for next year and the trade deficit will be It is currently 1.1. %, will be brought down to -1.7 due to recovery of the economy.
He stressed the need to speed up the process of economic recovery, saying that “we are making prudent efforts to bring the national economy out of the crisis completely.”
He said that national development revolves around the framework of five ES (Exports, e-Pakistan, Equity, Energy and Environment), which are being vigorously pursued to bring the country out of financial crisis and turn it towards a stable platform. Needs to be followed.
The Planning Minister said that the government is making efforts to complete the ongoing projects on priority basis which were in earlier or intermediate stages to reduce the burden on the development schemes going forward.
