Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has approved the Rs 4.4 trillion budget for the year 2016-17.

Ailing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday presided over the meeting through video link from Pakistan’s High Commission in London.

Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar will table the finance bill in the Parliament on June 3.

In the upcoming budget, new taxes of Rs 288 billion will be levied on various items on the directives of the IMF. Tax collection target of Rs 3,600 billion has been set for the next financial year. It is suggested that a sum of Rs 900 billion be earmarked for defence in the upcoming federal budget.

On the recommendation of the National Economic Council (NEC), the federal cabinet has given approval for seven power projects worth Rs 157 billion. The government has allocated Rs 60 billion for the 2400-MW LNG-based power plants at Balloki and Haveli Bahadur Shah, Rs 61.453 billion for the 969-MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project, Rs 42.177 billion for the 2,160-MW Dasu Hydropower Project Stage-1, Rs 32.360 billion for the 4,500-MW Diamer-Basha Dam, Rs 22.324 billion for the 300-MW Chashma NPP C3 and C4, Rs 19,061 for the new coal fired power plants at Jamshoro and Rs 16.487 billion for the Tarbela Forth Extension Hydropower Project in the next budget.

The government has allocated Rs 261 billion for transport and infrastructure compared to last year’s Rs 220 billion. In the upcoming budget, the federal government is going to allocate Rs 6,000 million for the Lowari Tunnel and access roads, Rs 5,780 million for the Jaglot-Skardu Road, Rs 4,492 million for the Rakhi Gaj-Bewata (N-70) East West (34-kilometre), Rs 4,450 million for the approach roads to the new Islamabad international Airport, Rs 3,000 million for the construction of roads for the new Islamabad international airport, Rs 2,000 million for the Chakdara-Chitral Section of the N-45 (141-kilometre) and Rs 1,454 million for the Peshawar Northern Bypass.

Furthermore, the federal government is going to set up a campus of a women’s university in Swat, a university in Gwadar, the University of Central Asia and Pakistan (UCAP) Phase-1 in Islamabad and upgrade the Laki Marwat campus of the Bannu University of Science and Technology to a full-fledge university.

The government has allocated Rs 20 billion for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for the first time. MDGs are the world’s time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in many dimensions — income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion — while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. Earlier, the current and previous governments failed to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) via video link from the Pakistan High Commission in London. All members of the council attended the meeting at Prime Minister’s Office in Islamabad.

The prime minister approved all the agenda items and noted with satisfaction that the GDP growth in the current financial year remained 4.7 percent. He said it was the highest GDP growth in the last eight years. The prime minister said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had the capacity to contribute to the GDP growth and it would help Pakistan consolidate its economic outlook in the years to come.

The meeting approved the GDP growth target of 5.7 percent and Rs 1,675 billion national development outlay for the financial year 2016-17 — Rs 800 billion as the federal Public Sector Development Programme and Rs 875 billion as the provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP).

The growth target for 2016-17 has been set at 3.5 percent for agriculture sector, 7.7 percent for industry and 5.7 percent for the services sector. It was informed that significant attention would be given to infrastructure development, as it remained neglected during the last fifteen years.

The meeting was given an overview of the state of country’s economy in 2015-16 and it approved a macroeconomic framework for the Annual Plan for 2016-17. The meeting was briefed about the CDWP as well as schemes approved by the ECNEC & the CDWP from April 2015 to March 2016.