Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has summoned a key meeting of the National Economic Council today (Wednesday), a day earlier than the initially scheduled June 5.
The meeting, at Prime Minister’s House, would include the participation of the chief ministers of all four provinces. According to sources, the meeting would approve the national development budget and the macroeconomic framework for the upcoming fiscal year.
Finance ministry sources said Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb would brief the meeting on the broad contours of the budget set to be presented in the National Assembly next week. They said the NEC would review and approve a national development budget of Rs. 3,795 billion.
Of the overall development budget, Rs. 1,000 billion would likely be approved for the federal government’s development spending. Punjab is anticipated to receive a development budget of Rs. 1,188 billion; Sindh Rs. 887 billion; Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Rs. 440 billion; and Balochistan Rs. 280 billion. Further, the NEC would approve a five-year development plan, said the sources.
The meeting would also review and approve projects initiated under Public-Private Partnerships.
Budgetary targets
The sources said the finance ministry has finalized targets for the upcoming budget. They said the GDP growth target for the upcoming fiscal year would be set at 4.2%, while the target for agricultural sector growth would likely be set at 4.5%.
Similarly, the government has set an ambitious industrial growth target of 4.3%, while services sector growth has been targeted at 4%.
The exports target has been set at $35 billion against an imports target of $65 billion. This comes on the back of a proposal to cut import tariffs in a bid to boost exports after several years of maintaining curbs to build up foreign exchange buffers.
The government is also likely to approve a remittances target of $39 billion, buoyed by the record-high remittances the country received from overseas workers in the ongoing fiscal year.