Public sector development spending increases to Rs 800 bln from Rs 348.27 bln

ISLAMABAD, May 20 (APP): The government, with a focus on increasing public sector development spending, has ensured raise in this domain from Rs 348.27 billion during 2013 to Rs 800 billion in 2017.
A number of massive infrastructure, power and other projects have been initiated which will remain instrumental in attracting private sector investment.
Sources at Finance Division while highlighting measures on Saturday said the government takes into consideration the recommendations and weaknesses made by/pointed out by all stakeholders including State Bank of Pakistan while formulating economic and financial policies.
The government has focused on bringing improvement in real sector growth through agriculture, industrial and services sectors and in this connection, a number of public sector development programmes have been initiated in productive and infrastructure sectors.
The sources said consolidation efforts are on track since government has successfully curtailed the fiscal deficit at 4.6 percent of GDP in fiscal year 2016, 5.3 percent of GDP during fiscal year 2015 and 5.5 percent in fiscal year 2014 on account of prudent expenditure management and increase in revenues.
It is worth mentioning that the fiscal deficit was successfully brought down from 8.2 percent of GDP in fiscal year 2013.
Moreover, the sources said the government’s efforts to improve Pakistan’s business climate to attract higher investment inflows have been underpinned by the National Doing Business Reform Strategy 2016.
The reforms focus on regulatory changes, improving technology and building capacity of implementing agencies for simplification of procedures involved in making businesses operational.
As a result of successful implementation of key reform measures, Pakistan’s ranking on World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index has improved by four points to 144 out of 190 economies in Doing Business Report 2017 and the country’s has been recognized as one of the top ten reformers globally in area of business regulation.
Similarly, the inflation rate has been kept under control due to effective monetary and fiscal policies. This price stability maintained the confidence of economic agents to enhance economic activities in the country.
Under PSE Reform Strategy, the government has focused on improvement in corporate governance, restructuring of PSEs and Strategic Partnership through Privatization.
The government has appointed financial advisers for various public sector corporations.
The implementation of National Power Policy 2013 has resulted in reduction in line losses of power sector distribution companies (from 18.7 % in fiscal year 2014-15 to 17.9 % during fiscal year 2015-16) and increase in collections (from 89.2 % in fiscal year 2014-15 to 94.6 % in fiscal year 2015-16).
During fiscal year 2017, the line losses have declined further to 17.2 percent.
The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with an investment of US $ 46 billion is a testament of Pakistan’s rising potential and the government’s commitment to use this opportunity as a game changer for country in coming decade.
Twenty five industrial zones are being established on three routes of CPEC. The CPEC projects include investment of US$ 34 billion in the energy sector and US $ 12 billion in building roads, highways, railways ports and airports.