KARACHI, May 5: An annual development plan of Rs275-Rs278 billion will be discussed by the political leadership and senior bureaucrats of all the four provinces on May 16 in the Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) meeting in Islamabad. Knowledgeable sources indicate that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz would also participate in the meeting as he is the minister-in-charge of the finance. The National Economic Council (NEC), the supreme body of the country to decide on economic issues is expected to meet within a week of the APCC meeting.

“Like in the past, the APCC papers from Islamabad will be received hardly one or two days before the meeting,” a well-placed source in the Sindh government said. Every province has to offer a written reply to the APCC working paper in the meeting so that views of all the provinces are incorporated in the NEC papers.

Next year’s budget size is expected to be between Rs1.05 to Rs1.10 trillion of which the development component would be close to 3 per cent. The Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) has given next year’s development outlay at Rs272 billion which is 34.7 per cent more than the current fiscal year’s development programme of Rs202 billion.

In the current fiscal year, the utilization of development funds is expected to be Rs188 billion. In 2005-06 the development outlay will have federal programme of Rs204bn, showing 38pc growth over the current year’s federal programme of Rs148 billion.

The provincial development programmes will be Rs67.5 billion, showing a growth of 25 per cent over Rs54 billion in the current fiscal year. With no NFC award in sight, the provinces particularly the small three provinces Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP are finding it difficult to draw up their next fiscal year’s budget.

Other impediments of the provinces are the rise in current expenditure because of the increase in the salaries of the government employees and impact of a double digit inflation rate. “It is not an easy exercise,” a senior planner in Sindh said.

Sindh has been unable to fully implement Rs18 billion annual development programme of the current fiscal year and is planning a development outlay of Rs21.5 to Rs22bn for the next fiscal year. Punjab’s ADP in the current fiscal year is Rs43.44 billion, NWFP’s Rs16.19 billion and Rs8.61 billion for Balochistan.