The government is all set to start preparing for the next fiscal year’s federal budget with the convening of the Priorities Committee meeting, chaired by Finance Secretary Waqar Masood Khan, to ascertain the demands of various ministries and departments today (Friday), an official source said. The government informed the ministries that the federal budget would be announced on May 28. There is an estimated increase of five percent in the next fiscal year’s budget estimate that would roughly be to the tune of Rs 3.5 trillion as compared to the current year’s outlay of Rs 2.9 trillion.
He said the main thrust would be on generating additional revenues but that would depend totally on providing uninterrupted energy supplies, adding that it would be a difficult task but the government could still manage it through better governance. About this year’s GDP growth rate, he said it would be close to three percent but added that the final figure would be out after the meetings of the Federal Committee on Agriculture and the National Accounts Committee on April 28.
The meeting of the Priorities Committee would start finalising the next fiscal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) which could be close to Rs 300 billion. This year’s PSDP was slashed from Rs 280 billion to Rs 180 billion due to the floods and other security-related expenses. The Ministry of Finance has ascertained an increase of five percent in the current budget, non-development expenditures, of the federal ministries and divisions in the next fiscal year 2011-12.
The increase was made due to the inflationary pressures even though many of the ministries would be devolved during the current financial year, he added. On the infrastructure needs, he said the government was working on a setting up a development finance institution, Infrastructure Bank. Its setting up might be announced during the next fiscal year’s budget. He said currently there was no proposal under discussion on the increase in the salaries of government employees but added that it was up to the government to decide.
