A meeting of the Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) convened to finalize development budget for 2019-20 scheduled to be held on Monday (today) has been delayed till Thursday. Sources told Business Recorder that with the budget now expected to be announced on 10 or 11 June, instead of the earlier scheduled date of 24 May, the urgency to hold the APCC is no longer acute.
With the budget under considerable revision after the staff level agreement was reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the delay is understandable, sources in the finance ministry told Business Recorder. Additionally some revisions may still be under consideration under the Prime Minister's social sector programme 'ehsaas'.
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Hafeez Sheikh has already announced a federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of RS 800 billion and a social sector programme of Rs 180 billion which he claimed was Rs 80 billion more than allocated this year as the Khan led administration slashed PSDP to Rs 675 billion.
However the allocations for next year announced by Hafeez Sheikh are identical to those contained in the April 2018 budget announced by the Shahid Khaqan Abbasi led administration: federal PSDP Rs 800 billion and development expenditure outside PSDP at Rs 180.2 billion.
Finance Ministry sources however stated that the exact amount of PSDP is yet to be decided and has always been subject to revision by the National Economic Council meeting presided over by the Prime Minister and attended by all the Chief Ministers.
Sources in the finance ministry on condition of anonymity said that International Monetary Fund (IMF) condition is that consolidated PSDP - federal and provincial governments - must be 3.3 percent of the GDP or over Rs 1436 billion. The April 2018 budget envisaged Rs 1650 billion federal and provincial PSDP while revised estimates for 2017-18 indicated an outlay of Rs1550 billion.
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