May 24, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 21,1424

ISLAMABAD, May 23: The Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) meets here on Saturday to finalize Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and macroeconomic framework for the year 2003-04.

Official sources told Dawn that APCC, to be presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, would also review the five-year plan (2003-08), annual plan for 2002-03 and 10-year perspective plan besides finalizing the proposed PSDP and annual plan for the year 2003-04.

These sources said a Rs152 billion PSDP for next year has been finalized but this could be increased by the APCC to Rs161 billion in view of Rs8-9 billion additional resource availability. Some projects on the directives of the president and the prime minister on provincial governments’ request could be adjusted in the Rs161 billion PSDP.

These sources said that the finance minister had presided over a pre-APCC meeting on Friday and finalized general guidelines for the APCC meeting.

According to the working paper for the APCC, the total investment in 2003-04 has been projected at 16.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) which includes a fixed investment of 14.7 per cent, public investment of 6 per cent and private investment of 8 per cent.

According to the proposed macroeconomic framework for the next fiscal year, the GDP growth rate is estimated at 5.3 per cent for the next year. The net external resources inflow has been projected nil because outflow of resources would be equal to inflows.

National savings has been estimated at 16.9 per cent of the GDP while inflation would grow by 3.90 per cent during 2003-04. Total consumption has been estimated at Rs3729 billion and total resources/uses at Rs4469.4 billion.

Official documents suggest that net indirect taxes are estimated to go up by 16.7 per cent from Rs308.4 billion this year to Rs360.1 billion during 2003-04.

Total consumption has been projected to rise by 10 per cent to Rs3730 billion from Rs3392 billion during 2002-03. The national savings would decline to Rs739.8 billion in 2003-04 against Rs778 billion during the current fiscal year, showing a decline of 5 per cent. As percentage of GDP (MP), the saving rate would reduce to 16.9 per cent in 2003-04 against 19.5 per cent estimated for the current year.

Similarly, net factor income from abroad has also been estimated to reduce from Rs180 billion to Rs82 billion next year, showing more than 50 per cent reduction over the current year. Net external resources outflow has been estimated to decline from Rs157.1 billion to 0.3 billion next year. However, as percentage of GDP (MP), the external resource inflow would remain zero against negative 4 per cent last year.

In this way, total resources/uses are projected to increase by 11.37 per cent from Rs4012.9 billion in 2002-03 to Rs4469.4 billion in 2003-04.

The finance ministry sources said that Rs54.4 billion have been allocated for new federal government projects. Allocations for special areas like FATA, AJK and NAs have been projected at Rs8.1 billion for the next year against Rs7.6 billion during current year.

Similarly, Rs9 billion have been earmarked for special programmes including Rs4.5 billion for Tameer-e-Pakistan, Rs2 billion for Drought Emergency Relief Assistance (DERA) and Rs2.5 billion for federal priority projects on the special directives of the prime minister and the president.

No allocation has been made for devolution plan while Rs33.5 billion have been earmarked for various public sector corporations.

AJK development budget 2003-04 would get Rs3.6 billion against Rs3.3 billion, Northern Areas’ PSDP would remain static at Rs2.1 billion while funds for FATA would increase from Rs1.9 billion to Rs2.3 billion. There would be no allocation for FATA DC during the next fiscal as against Rs161 million this year.

Infrastructure development would get Rs44.7 billion, followed by Public Works and poverty alleviation at Rs38.8 billion, sustainable development at Rs15.3 billion and governance Rs6.1 billion.

During current year, infrastructure development was given Rs37.7 billion, followed by public works Rs34.2 billion, Sustainable development Rs12.9 billion and governance Rs5.1 billion.