ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal has said that the budget 2017-18 is people friendly, development friendly and youth friendly.
On Friday, the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar unveiled the Federal Budget for the Financial Year 2017-18 with a total outlay of Rs 5,310 billion in the National Assembly session in Islamabad.
“For the first time in the country’s history, volume of federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) has crossed Rs one trillion mark while the overall development budget including provinces and corporations has been fixed at over Rs 2.5 trillion”, Ahsan said in a statement issued on Saturday.
The minister said that after 10 years, the country’s economic growth has crossed 5 per cent which would cross 6 per cent next year.
The planning and development minister said that record 66 per cent increase in the budget of Higher Education Commission (HEC) would help youth in grabbing their bright future.
Furthermore, he said that the federal government has also set aside a hefty amount of Rs 180 billion for the game-changer mega project of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which would open new avenues of development and prosperity in the country.
