PESHAWAR, May 2: The NWFP government is likely to increase the outlay of its Annual Development Programme (ADP) by 10 to 15 per cent in the next financial year.

Officials in the planning and development department said the NWFP government had not received the expected federal instructions for the next fiscal year and the provincial departments had been just asked to prepared their draft ADPs with a 10 per cent increase over the plans for the current fiscal year. Currently, the provincial government is implementing an ADP worth Rs26.63 billion, which is 26.8 per cent higher than the allocation for the last fiscal year.

The ADP includes Rs14.957 billion local component, Rs7.679 billion foreign funding, Rs2.61 billion special programmes, Rs419 million for population welfare and Rs963.39 million for district annual development plans. It comprises 773 ongoing and 233 new projects.

The officials said the departments concerned had to submit their draft ADPs by April 2 but some of them were yet to do so.

The planning and development department is likely to finalise the draft ADP by May 5, following which a series of consultative meetings would commence for shaping the plan, they maintained.

Giving details about guidelines for the next ADP, the officials said priority for allocation would be given to matching funds for foreign aided projects, schemes projects at fairly advanced stage of implementation, plans dealing with emergencies and new approved projects.

They said the departments had been directed to give priority to the ongoing projects, for which 70 per cent of the funds would be allocated, while 30 per cent would go to new projects.

The departments had been told that the priority of the new projects would be in view of their internal financial and economic rates of return, they said.

The officials, however, said the criteria of social importance, pro-poor objectives and creation of productive assets would also be given due importance. They said ranking on the basis of rate of return would not be necessary for projects pertaining to primary or secondary education, regional development, infrastructure or essential services.