ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): The government is fully committed to follow a sustained poverty reduction strategy and allocate a minimum of 4.5 percent of GDP for social and poverty related expenditure.
According to the Economic Survey unveiled by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar here on Thursday, the government prioritized 17 pro- poor sector through the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in the PRSP-11.
Expenditure on pro-poor sectors were increased and amounted to Rs. 2,162.7 billion, which was 7.9 percent of GDP.
During July – December of the current fiscal year 2015-16 ,Rs.
1,123 billion expenditure have been made in these sector.
BISP is continuing to eradicate extreme poverty through provision of cash transfers.
The monthly installment was enhanced by the present government has yet again increased the annual stipend from 18,000 per annum to Rs. 18,800 per anum per beneficiary from July 01,2015.
The present government would be enhanced the BISP budgetary allocation to Rs.102 billion in current FY 2016.
The number of BISP beneficiaries is expected to increase from 5.0 million on FY 2015 to 5.3 million by the end of FY 2016.
Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) also provides assistance in micro-credit ,water and infrastructure,draught mitigation,education,health and emergency response interventions.
An amount of Rs. 5303.53 million is distributed in bulk for Zakat amongst the provinces and other administrative areas for FY 2016.
Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) is also making efforts for eradication of poverty by providing assistance,in this regards during July 2015 to March 2016, PBM has managed to disburse an amount of Rs. 3132.39 million to its core projects.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): Ministry of Climate Change has constituted a National Steering Committee on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in the country.
According to Economic Survey released here on Thursday said that Pakistan has vast potential of controlling deforestation under REDD by paying compensation to forest communities with the finance of free market and non market resources.
The Prime Minister has approved the launch of ‘Green Pakistan Programme’ to improve forestry and wildlife sectors.
This programme targets to add 100 million plants over the next five years all over the country.
Under The Green Pakistan protection and management of wildlife and reclaiming and developing forest areas are the main aspects of the programme.
In this regard relevant federal and provincial ministries and agencies including FATS GB and AJK will actively participate in this programme to achieve the desired objectives of forests preservation and wildlife protection .
This initiative will ensure far-reaching reforms in forestry and wildlife sectors of the country.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): Pakistan is ranked 6th amongst 22 high
disease burden countries of the world and 40 percent of the burden of disease in
the country is in the form of communicable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.
This was revealed in the economic survey launched by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar during a press conference here on Thursday.
Incidence of TB stands at 231 per 100,000 persons and prevalence of about 300 cases per 100,000 population.
National TB Control Program (NTP) has achieved over 80 percent
Directly Observed Treatment System (DOTS) coverage in public sector and
in the last five years the programme has provided care to more than half a
million TB patients in Pakistan.
The programme is moving steadily to achieve the global targets of 70
percent case detection.
There are areas where NTP has to improve suspect management, contact management; quality bacteriology services, engaging all care providers through public private partnership (PPP), inter sectoral collaboration, monitoring and supervision, research for Evidence Based Planning (EBP) and Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilization (ACSM).
Currently with a total number of 211500 notified TB patients in the country, Pakistan ranks among the 22 high TB burden countries and the treatment success rate remained 91 percent.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): The manpower export has registered a significant
increase from 0.456 million in 2011 upto 0.946 million in 2015 with the government efforts to find place for Pakistani workforce in the international labour markets.
According to the the Economic Survey 2015-16 released
here Thursday, Saudi Arabia has become the largest market for
Pakistani workers in the world and more than 1.6 million Pakistanis proceeded to
Saudi Arabia from 2011-2015 for employment which accounts about 49.9 percent.
While 1.3 million people (38.2 percent) proceeded to UAE for employment
during the same period. Oman is the third largest importer
of Pakistani manpower and 0.26 million (7.6 percent) job seekers have proceeded
to Oman during 2011-2015.
The illiterate and unskilled workers comprises around half of the total Pakistani migrant workers and only 1.76 percent workers are doing white collar jobs.
Among the skilled workers, drivers are in the highest number, followed by masons, carpenters and tailors.
Since 1971 till December 2015 around 8.77 million Pakistanis were proceeded abroad for employment through the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BEOE).
Out of this total manpower exports, about 96 percent have proceeded only to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, one percent to European countries and three percent in other countries for employment during the same period.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has successfully disbursed about Rs. 387 billion across among its beneficiaries since inception.
According to the Economic Survey 2015-16 released here on Thursday, the numbers of BISP beneficiaries have increased from 1.7 million in FY 2009 to approximately 5.29 million at the end of March FY 2016.
BISP’s annual disbursement rose from 16 billion in FY 2009 to Rs. 102 billion in FY 2016. Since inception in 2008, BISP has transferred Rs. 387.0 billion as of March, 2016 as cash transfers to its beneficiaries.
The monthly installment was enhanced by the present government to Rs. 1200 per family in July, 2013 which has subsequently been increased to Rs. 1500/per family in 2014.
The present government has yet again increased the annual stipends from Rs. 18,000 per annum to Rs. 18,800 per annum per beneficiary w.e.f. July 1, 2015.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): The flows of Credit to Private Sector (CPS) have seen expansion of 82 percent during the fiscal year 2016 compared to the contraction of 41.5 percent during same period last year.
According to Economic Survey of Pakistan, launched here Thursday by Finance Minister, Muhammad Ishaq Dar, the flows of CPS stood at Rs.311.7 billion from July-6th May (FY2016) against Rs.171.2 billion in the same period of last year.
The outgoing fiscal year FY 2016 has seen more expansion in credit to private sector due to expansionary monetary policy stance by SBP.
SBP cut its policy rate significantly to 5.75 percent in May, 2016 which is the lowest in 44 year.
Broad Money (M2) increased to Rs.781.8 billion (6.93 percent) during the period against the expansion of Rs.690.0 (6.92 percent) last year.
Within Broad Money, NFA of the banking system during observed an expansion of Rs.105.2 billion against the net expansion of Rs.222.3 billion during the corresponding period of FY2015.
The NDA of the banking system showed an increase of Rs.676.6 billion against an increase of Rs.467.6 billion.
Higher increase was on the back of significant rise in Private Sector Credit (PSC). A welcome development is the gradual rise in net credit disbursement for fixed investment, it said adding it appeared that many firms are expanding their operations by availing fixed investment loan.
Government sector borrowing (net) reached to Rs.567.5 billion during Jul-06th May, FY 2016 as compared to an increase of Rs.539.4 billion in the same period of FY 2015.
Net budgetary borrowing from banking system remained at Rs.643.0 billion compared to Rs.560.8 billion in the same period last year.
Government borrowing from scheduled banks remained lower and stood at Rs.702.9 billion against Rs.1,093.2 billion in comparable period of last year. While, government retired Rs.59.8 billion to the State Bank of Pakistan during the period Jul-06 May, FY 2016 against the retirement of Rs.532.3 billion in the same period of FY 2015.
The overall performance of the banking sector during the last couple of years has been quite impressive and the momentum continued in the FY2016 with asset base reaching to Rs.14.3 trillion by end March, 2016 (Rs.12.1 trillion as of end March, 2015).
Similarly, asset quality has also improved and gross NPLs to loans ratio reduced from 12.3 percent in CY14 to 11.4 percent in CY15.
Whereas, Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) increased to 16.3 percent by end March, 2016 that is much strong and higher than the minimum required level of 10.25 percent.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): China-Pak Economic Corridor’s infrastructure projects have entered into implementation phase this year and work on the two major highways projects has commenced, according to Economic Survey 2015-16 released Thursday.
Karakoram Highway (KKH) Phase-II (Thakot-Havelian section)
costing Rs. 142 billion and Peshawar-Karachi motorway (Multan-Sukkur section)
costing Rs. 315 billion projects are progressing well.
Besides work on Gwadar Eastbay Expressway and New Gwadar International Airport is likely to start soon. A high level delegation visited both sites to prepare feasibility studies, said the economic Survey.
Joint Feasibility study on main railways line (Peshawar-Karachi) has been completed. The project will involve dualization of railway track, up gradation of main railway lines with modern signaling system, better safety and central control system to have speed of 160 km per hour.
CPEC envisions inclusive development and benefitting all regions of the country. CPEC is one corridor and three passages. The work on the western passage is proceeding well.The Prime Minister of Pakistan inaugurated Gwadar-Hoshab section and Hoshab-Surab section in Balochistan is being completed by the end of this year.
Land for six lanes motorway from Burhan to D.I.Khan has been procured by NHA and the ground-breaking of the first section has been performed by Prime Minister recently. This motorway Burhan-D.I.Khan is targeted to be completed by June, 2018.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): The country has received valuable remittances
amounting to over $4.83 billion during July-April 2015-16 through workforce
in Saudi Arabia, the country which is contributing a major share of remittances.
According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16, the country received the
inflows worth $3.54 billion from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), registering a
largest increase from any major remittance-sending country during the last nine
months.
Remittances from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the
United Kingdom reached at $1.97 billion and $2.02 billion, respectively in
July-April 2015-16.
The government is considering different proposals to substantially boost
foreign remittances and foreign exchange reserves. The Gulf region is to be
effectively tapped by exporting the maximum manpower.
The government is expecting good opportunities of manpower export during
the events of Expo 2020 in Dubai. Moreover, massive new construction plans in
Saudi Arabia will also provide opportunities for Pakistani man power.
Like other Gulf States, Qatar stands prominent in offering a number of
incentives to Pakistan due to its regional importance.
As Qatar is going to host the FIFA 2022 World Cup and allocated a huge
budget for this purpose.
It will require substantial infrastructural development where Pakistani
engineers and labour force can effectively play their role in the development
which will not only decrease unemployment rate in the country but increase
remittances.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): The gross and net collection of indirect taxes have witnessed a growth of 20.4 percent and 21.7 percent respectively which accounted 62.1 percent of total FBR tax revenues during first ten months of current fiscal year.
Within Indirect taxes, a net collection of sales tax is increased by 20.2 percent. The gross and net collection of Sales Tax stood at Rs.1,046.5 billion and Rs.1,013.6 billion respectively during the period under review.
As per Economic Survey, launched by Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Ishaq Dar at a press conference here on Thursday, in fact, around 46.2 percent of total Sales Tax is contributed by domestic sector.
The Survey said a major contribution to net domestic Sales Tax collection came from Petroleum (POL) products, fertilizers, natural gas, cement, other services, electrical energy, beverages, cigarettes, tea, sugar, iron and steel etc.
On the other hand, contribution to collection of Sales Tax on imports was made significantly by POL products, plastic, edible oil, vehicles, machinery, chemicals, oilseeds etc.
The Survey said Customs Duty collection has registered a growth of 31.8 percent and 32.5 percent in both gross and net terms respectively.
The gross and net collection have increased from Rs.243 billion and Rs.234.8 billion during July-April, FY 2015 to Rs.320.2 billion and Rs.311.1 billion respectively during first ten months of current fiscal year.
The major revenue spinners of customs duty have been automobiles, edible oil, petroleum products, machinery, plastic, iron and steel, paper and paperboard etc.
The collection of Federal Excise Duty (FED) during July-April, FY 2016 has recorded a growth of 11.5 percent. The net collection stood at Rs.133.4 billion during July-April, FY 2016 as against Rs.119.6 billion during same period of FY 2015.
The major revenue spinners of FED are cigarettes, cement, beverage, natural gas and international travel etc.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): Pakistan has successfully achieved the set targets under Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in environment sector.
According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16 released here Thursday said that the government has undertaken several projects and programmes to support the environmental goals.
Many projects have been completed such as
capacity building, provision of clean drinking
water, environmental management, biodiversity,
air pollution control and watershed management,
urban development, promotion of tourism,
restoration of lakes and water bodies,
environmental awareness, waste management.
To combat desertification and land degradation, the government started an umbrella project with the assistance of UNDP. First phase of this project has been completed and targets such as institutional and knowledge capacity building, feasibility studies for testing Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices and designing full demonstration investments has been achieved.
Second phase of this project is also under implementation in 14 districts of Pakistan with approved cost of Rs.1666.67 million.
The government is also working with several NGOs, INGOs and United Nations Organizations, such as Leads, WWF, IUCN and UNEP on environmental issues and has implemented projects in capacity building on climate change adaptation, environment rehabilitation, mountain area and wet areas conservancy and provision of clean drinking water.
Target of access to improved water resources through hand pump, electronic motor and tap water has also been achieved.
Progress is on track to meet the target for land protection for the conservation of wildlife as a percentage of total land area.
However, Pakistan’s performance on other targets such as forest cover and lowering the Sulphur content in high speed diesel as well as access to sanitation and energy efficiency by the proportion of population is not remarkable and is behind in achieving these targets compared to its regional counterparts.
Ministry of Climate Change has taken many initiatives to increase the awareness and to change the attitude of people regarding environmental issues as well as strict compliance of government regulations to achieve environmental sustainability targets.