PTI govt unwisely allowed import of luxury items worth $84 biln, which resulted in the enhanced traded deficit of $50 biln: Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD, June 02 (SABAH): Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhry says the government has allocated 1100 billion rupees for the development projects in the next fiscal year.

Chairing the Annual Plan Coordination Committee meeting in Islamabad on Friday, Ahsan Iqbal said Rs 950 billion of that budget has be spent under the under Public Sector Development Programme, while 150 billion rupees have been earmarked for Public-Private Partnership.

Later addressing a news conference in the federal capital, Ahsan Iqbal said it was the previous government of PML-N that had earmarked a budget of 1000 billion rupees for the development project, while this amount was slashed to half by the PTI government, which shows that development has never been their priority.

The Planning Minister said the PTI government unwisely allowed import of luxury items worth $84 billion, which resulted in the enhanced traded deficit of $50 billion. He said that was the turning point that brought Pakistan to the macro economic crisis.

He said the coalition government led by Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif is striving hard to maintain and enhance country’s foreign exchange reserves.

The Planning Minister further said now the country is heading toward stabilization as a result of the prudence economic policies of the government, restoring confidence of the foreign investors as well. 

Talking about targets for the next fiscal year, the Planning Minister said that a GDP growth will likely to remain 3.5 percent, agriculture 3.5 percent, manufacturing 4.3 percent and Service sector3.6 percent. He said inflation is expected to come down from 29.2 percent to 21 percent, while the ratio of national saving is expected to rise from 12.5 percent to 13.4 percent.

Commenting on the exports, Ahsan Iqbal said exports expectation is 28 billion dollars, which may go up to 30 billion dollars next year.

Highlighting framework of the development budget, the Minister said it consists of five Es, including exports, e-Pakistan, energy, environment and equity. He said the government is working hard to achieve desired results in these domains.