ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umer briefed the media on Tuesday in the federal capital about the meeting of the National Economic Council.
The National Economic Council reviewed the annual plan yesterday, Asad Umar told me the media.
Giving the details of the decisions taken by the council the minister informed that the federation has increased the PSDP rate by 36.4 percent, the last five years of PSDP have been compared to Asad Umer said.
In 2016-17, 56 percent was spent on energy and transport, in 2021-22, 40 percent of the budget has been earmarked for energy and transport, whereas, in 2016-17, only 4 percent of the budget was allocated for water, said Asad Umer
10 percent budget has been allocated for water in 2021-22, the minister said. Public-Private Board has approved projects worth Rs 244 billion.
The council also approved the Sukkur-Hyderabad project, which will cost about Rs200 billion.
There will be work on three major projects for water storage, which will help cultivate 300,000 acres of land in the next two years.
Rs84 billion should be invested for Diamer Bhasha, Mohmand, Dasu, the minister for planning remarked.
Most money will be spent on distribution in the power sector, Rs5 billion has been set aside to supply electricity to Gwadar industry, Asad Umar said.
“For the upcoming fiscal year, Rs44 billion has been set aside for Higher Education Commission, whereas, Rs14 billion has been set aside for the environment in the year 2021-22,” said Asad Umar.
The highest amount of Rs 52 billion has been spent on health this year, this expenditure is a drift away from Pakistan’s usual pie chart for the budget where healthcare receives a much smaller share. The anomaly for the unusual prioritization of healthcare happened due to the CVOID-19 pandemic.
Out of the total expenditure on healthcare, the figure of Rs52 billion is only for the federal expenditure on health, provinces had around Rs85 to 90 billion.
Asad Umar further said that Rs54 billion has been allocated for the uplift of the newly-merged districts of former FATA. Rs87 billion was allocated for the projects of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), he added.
He detailed that Pakistan People’s Party-led Sindh government has not constructed a single inch of motorway in the province, however, the federal government is spending Rs200 billion on the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway project. Besides this, development work is underway on different projects worth Rs90 billion in Sindh.
Umar said that the federal government is also making efforts to end encroachments and cleaning the drainage nullahs in Sindh. He also said that Rs25 billion of funds are being spent on water projects in Sindh.
Commenting on the progress of the CPEC Asim Saleem Bajwa said, “everyone is working for the development of CPEC. Special attention was directed through CPEC to the more underdeveloped areas of Pakistan.”
He further informed the media that the project from DI Khan to Zop has been made a part of the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC).
“Work on Khushab to Awaran project is underway, which will be the second route connecting Gwadar with the northern areas,” Asim Bajwa said
Work is underway on the roads connected to CPEC, he said while also commenting that the project will also bring a revolution in agriculture.
