ISLAMABAD: The Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) cleared on Monday a plan for the fiscal year 2014-15 envisaging a consolidated development programme of Rs1.310 trillion, economic growth rate at 5.1 per cent and inflation at 8pc.

A meeting of the APCC, presided over by Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal and attended by provincial ministers, also decided to do away with hundreds of politically motivated projects, discretionary schemes for parliamentarians under the People’s Works Programme and Tameer-i-Pakistan Programme and other old but slow-moving projects.

Talking to journalists after the meeting, Mr Iqbal said the committee had also recommended to the National Economic Council, headed by the prime minister, to authorise the launch of 303 schemes at a cost of Rs1.6trn, a few new initiatives and the vision 2025 programme to pick up as part of the next year’s development programme to transform Pakistan into an export-oriented country. This will be done through focus on taxation, investment and export growth.

He said the highest-ever Rs1.310trn plan would include a federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of Rs525 billion, provincial annual development plans of Rs650bn and separate projects of Rs135bn to be launched by Wapda and the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) from their own resources. The PSDP will have a foreign exchange contribution of Rs102bn.

The minister said the PSDP would be 23pc higher than the revised estimate of Rs425bn for the current fiscal year.

In reply to a question about the announcement of higher outlays and then cutting down the development plans due to a shortfall in revenue collection, Mr Iqbal said the PSDP would remain protected because it had been finalised after deliberations with the prime minister. Mr Sharif himself attended at least three meetings.

The power sector has been given top priority with the highest allocation of Rs260bn, apart from Rs135bn self-financing by Wapda and NTDC. The generation sector has been given a lion’s share of Rs155bn — Rs84bn for hydroelectricity, Rs23bn for thermal power and Rs48bn for nuclear power generation. The sector will get another Rs105bn from the federal budget for improvement and expansion of transmission lines.

The transport and communication sector will get Rs163bn, including Rs114bn for the National Highway Authority and Rs40bn for rehabilitation and revival of the Pakistan Railways.

Mr Iqbal said the transport sector had been neglected for 15 years and because of this it was unable to support a growing economy. The sector would be revived through improvement in tracks and locomotives so that it could provide logistic support for transportation of coal for power generation.

The minister said the federal government would allocate Rs51bn for education, health and population welfare projects across the country, although these subjects were devolved. Another Rs12.5bn will be allocated for a new initiative to achieve millennium development goals in two to three years. With the current pace, the MDGs could not be achieved even until 2040 which was shameful for the country, he added.

Mr Iqbal said the government was launching a programme for human resource development through an endowment fund of Rs1bn which would be increased to Rs10bn in four years. It will be used for providing scholarships to poor students on merit for vertical social mobility of talent.

An amount of Rs45bn will be allocated for acquisition of land for the Karachi-Lahore motorway. It will be constructed on a build, operate and transfer basis with Chinese investment.

The minister said the Pakistan-China economic corridor would also be given priority in next year’s development programme.

Another new initiative of Rs36bn would be launched by the prime minister for national unity and strengthening of the federation by removing disparities in development and mainstreaming of underdeveloped areas across the country and in the provinces, except Punjab. Under the initiative, Rs15bn will be invested in Balochistan, Rs8bn in Sindh, Rs4bn each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, Rs3bn in Azad Kashmir and Rs2bn in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Another scheme will be launched with an initial allocation of Rs500 million for directing over 7000 PhD holders towards practical development and industrial projects through a technology fund.

Another scheme will reach out to poor students and educate them to the level of PhD at public expense.

The minister said Rs100 million would be allocated for mainstreaming Madressah education.

The implementation of PSDP would be monitored through a newly created delivery unit at the Planning Commission.

Mr Iqbal said the APCC had decided to complete projects with 70pc progress next year and with 50pc progress in two years and give up low priority politically motivated projects on which 25pc money had been spent.

He said the government had set a target of $27bn for exports next year, investment at 15.7pc of GDP, saving at 14.6pc and the current account deficit at 1.1pc of GDP, or $2.8bn.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2014