Economic Survey, a pre-budget to be launched on Thursday

ISLAMABAD, May 24 (APP): The government is set to launch ‘the Economic Survey of Pakistan’ for the outgoing fiscal year (2016-17) and Annual Plan for the year 2017-18 on Thursday.
All arrangements have been finalized to present the Economic Survey for 2016-17 and Annual Plan for 2017-18, the official sources said.
Federal Minister for Finance, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar would launch the pre budget document, highlighting the overall performance of economy during the outgoing fiscal year, providing a realistic feedback and basis for future planning.
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 2016 17 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.