ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, will formally launch the Economic Survey 2016-17 on Thursday.
The minister will share the key economic indicators and the performance of different sectors of the economy with the media here at a press conference. The Finance Minister will also provide an overview of the economic progress made in recent years in Pakistan, official sources said.
He will highlight the main features of the comprehensive reforms agenda undertaken by the present government, which had resulted in macro-economic stability and a ten-year high growth rate of 5.28 per cent.
The Finance Minister will present the budget for FY 2017-2018 on the floor of the National Assembly on Friday (May 26). In his budget speech, the Finance Minister will provide details of the revenue, expenditure and relief measures envisaged for the next fiscal year.
The survey will cover the development of all the important sectors of economy, including growth and investment, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, fiscal development, money and credit, capital markets, inflation, debt and liabilities.
The survey will also highlight the performance of agriculture, education, health and nutrition, besides showing the overall population, labour force and employment, poverty, transport and communication and per capita income.
It will also highlight issues of environment, contingent liabilities, tax expenditure as well as economic and social indicators.
The government would also launch the annual plan, highlighting government’s preparation and planning for the upcoming fiscal year in different sectors of national economy. Meanwhile, the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on May 19, had already approved the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth target at 6 percent for the financial year 2017-18 while the government achieved a GDP growth rate of 5.3 percent in the outgoing fiscal year.
The NEC also approved country’s consolidated development budget of Rs 2.5 trillion for the upcoming financial year (2017 18), showing highest ever increase in the overall national outlay.
This included Rs 1001 billion Federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), Rs 1112 billion provincial PSDP while Rs 400 billion would be spent by various corporations from their own resources to carry out their development projects.
Social sector has been given importance in the development budget 2017-18, financing for which has been increased from Rs 90 billion to Rs 153 billion.
Furthermore, in order to promote higher education and lead the country towards development, the budget for Higher Education Commission (HEC) has also been increased from Rs 21 billion in 2016 17 to Rs 35.5 billion in 2017 18.
Similarly, the government also envisaged establishing of university campuses at district levels across the country within three years.
The Atomic Energy Commission was also being provided additional funds to upgrade its cancer facilitation centers. For promotion of literature and culture, the government would be expanding the outreach of Academy of Letters across the country by establishing its centers.
Likewise, an amount of Rs 17 billion has been specifically approved for Balochistan to improve communication system and for different water related projects.
