ISLAMABAD, June 7: Major thrust of the Rs160 billion Public Sector Development Programme, unveiled in the budget on Saturday, is on infrastructure sectors and other projects to reduce poverty characterized by galloping unemployment.

Thus the stated objectives of the next year’s PSDP are in line with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper published by the Finance Division which had noted, inter alia, that the rate of unemployment adjusted for underemployment exceeds 10 per cent in Pakistan.

The programme envisages spending Rs89.2bn — 78.9 per cent of the total Federal Development Programme allocation of Rs113bn — on these projects, particularly in the areas of public works, human development and poverty reduction.

In these areas, some new programmes have also been launched to alleviate poverty mainly because of commitments with donor agencies.

Besides, Rs17.5bn (15.5 per cent) has been provided for sustainable development programmes and Rs6.3bn (5.6 per cent) for governance sectors.

The PSDP 2003-04, says the relevant budget document, marks the third year of the Ten-year Perspective Development Plan (2001-11) which has been formulated within the overall policy to move towards self-sustained economic growth, reduce poverty, ensure good governance, generate employment and raise the quality of social services especially health and education including higher education.

At the same time, however, the document states that the first priority will be given to the projects already scheduled for completion in June next year to avoid thin distribution of limited resources. Next in line would be the projects that are likely to be completed by June 2005.

The total outlay of Rs160bn for PSDP 2003-04 includes Rs43.9bn as foreign aid (with Rs27bn for federal projects and Rs16.9bn for provincial projects).

The PSDP 2003-04 allocation denotes an increase of 19.4 per cent over the current financial year’s allocation of Rs134bn. The Rs113bn allocation to the total Federal Development Programme denotes 25.6 per cent increase over that of current year. The provincial governments will receive Rs47bn — 6.8 per cent (Rs3bn) more than in 2002-03.

A significant feature of PSDP 2003-04 is that no block allocation has been made for any sector “in line with the current policy on disciplined and visioned planning”, the document states.

The PSDP 2003-04 has also set aside Rs6.6bn, as compared to Rs8.6bn in the current year. It includes Rs3.6bn for the Tameer-i-Pakistan Programme (for legislators’ schemes), Rs2bn for Federal Priority Projects, Rs0.5bn for Sasti Basti, and Rs0.5bn for Drought Emergency Relief Assistance.

PSDP 2002-03: The finance minister in his budget speech mentioned Rs120bn as the size of the current financial year’s plan. But the document on “Economic Framework and Public Sector Development Programme” states that the total size of budgetary PSDP during 2002-03 was Rs134bn.

Out of the 779 projects being implemented in the PSDP 2002-03, 175 projects with a total cost of Rs70bn are expected to be completed by June, 2003.

A new programme, Tameer-i-Pakistan, was also started in 2003 under the prime minister’s directive with an initial allocation of Rs2bn. Under this programme, the legislators would recommend schemes only for roads, electricity, gas and telecommunication.

The expenditure upto March 31, 2003, on PSDP was Rs78bn. This includes Rs49bn (54 per cent) spent out of federal programme allocations (Rs90bn) and Rs29bn (66 per cent) out of provincial allocation (Rs44bn).