FY2021-22 budget earmarked Rs900b in PSDP, planning commission says

ISLAMABAD: The deputy chairman of the planning commission has Friday chaired its annual session to mull over the fiscal year 2021-22 budget noting an expansion of 38 per cent than the preceding one with Rs900 billion allocated to public sector development programs (PSDP), ARY News reported.

The session today has approved all the programs under PSDP rubric in the fiscal budget noting that about Rs100 billion worth of foreign aid is included in these programs for the upcoming year.

For infrastructure, about Rs265 billion are designated for the budget that is set to roll out in June’s first week, the session said. For the water resources and the energy sector, Rs100 billion and Rs103 billion, respectively, are earmarked.

According to the session huddle, housing and physical plannings are appropriated a fund of Rs41 billion in the impending budget.

Furthermore, for health, about Rs28 billion and for education about Rs42 billion have been designated according to the session today.

Separately, as the ongoing budget year comes to a close, the economic affairs division said Pakistan received foreign loans amounting to US$10.19 billion during the first ten months of the outgoing fiscal year 2020-21.

According to details shared by the division, the country has received a foreign loan of US$ 10.1906 billion during the period of ten initial months of the fiscal year.

During the July-April period, Pakistan received US$3.1 billion under mutual agreements, it said in its monthly disbursement report adding that most of the foreign loans have come from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that stands at US$1.26 billion.

The economic affairs division further said that mutual agreements with various countries also helped in receiving foreign loans of US$376 million.