QUETTA: Balochistan on Thursday announced a Public Sector Development Programme of Rs86 billion, which allocates greater resources for transport, road development and social sector.

The development budget for the next financial year is almost 21 per cent higher than the original estimate of Rs71.1bn for the outgoing year. The budget has allocated almost 20pc for road and transport, 11pc for education, 15pc for health and public health engineering and 14pc for irrigation and agriculture.

The development outlay includes foreign assistant of Rs6bn which would be spent on 1,211 ongoing and 1,549 new projects.

In his budget speech, Adviser to the Chief Minister on Finance Sardar Muhammad Aslam Bizenjo said the government had curtailed its non-development expenditures, diverted more resources to boost development and investment in priority areas, including education, health, transport and road development.

He said besides taking austerity measures, the coalition government was reforming its expenditures and enforcing strict financial discipline. Additionally, the government had undertaken tax reforms to raise its revenues.

He said the formation of the Balochistan Revenue Authority had helped increase collection of GST on services to almost Rs3bn in a short span of time.

He said the government was introducing transparency in its operations through computerisation of government process.

Sardar Bizenjo said the development budget focused on early completion of projects related to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

In view of the importance of CPEC for the economy, the government would spend a hefty amount on electricity generation, hospitals, international airport and drinking water plant in Gwadar during the next financial year.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2017