The PTI government in Punjab is working on comprehensive developmental action to shift its economy into a higher gear during the last two years of its rule in the province, claims its finance minister Makhdum Hashim Jawan Bakht.
“We are preparing a growth-centric budget for the next fiscal year,” Mr Hashim said in an interview with this correspondent. “This year has remained promising in spite of the Covid-19 crisis and the economy has picked steam. Now we feel that we have a very good platform to start a shift towards development growth.”
He said the provincial government had spent the first three years (2018-21) cleaning up the economic mess left by the previous PML-N government, stimulate the economy and provide relief to the people to protect them from the adverse impacts of the global pandemic. “But now onwards we feel that we will have enough room to boost growth over the next two years (ahead of the 2023 elections),” the minister argued.
Punjab’s spending on infrastructure development during the eight months between July and February has marginally dropped to Rs137.2 billion from Rs148.3bn last year.
The province is targeting a development expenditure of Rs337bn on socio-economic infrastructure during the present fiscal year. Given the public resource constraint, the government had arranged significantly large foreign funding as well as implemented a plan to leverage private investment in infrastructure projects. For example, the original estimates of the annual development programme (ADP) for the present year carry almost two-fifth of the total uplift allocations in the shape of foreign loans, including a Chinese loan of Rs40.8bn. Similarly, the provincial government is expecting a private investment of Rs25bn in different road infrastructure development schemes in the province during the current year.