Anti-terror war budget to go up

ISLAMABAD The Government will allocate Rs 185 billion grants for the war on terror and other security purposes for the coming fiscal year 2010-11, which will be 48 percent higher than the allocation of the ongoing financial year, TheNation has learnt. According to the documents available with TheNation, the Government will keep Rs 185 billion for war on terror and other security purposes of the country in the annual budget 2010-11. It is worth mentioning here that the grant for war on terror was Rs 125 billion in the last budget 2009-10, however it was revised up to Rs 154 billion due to war in Malakand Division and South Waziristan Agency. Similarly, the Government will allocate Rs 3 billion for remission of agricultural loans to the farmers in militancy-hit areas, which was only two billion in the ongoing fiscal year. Meanwhile, in order to meet revenue deficit of the Pakistan Railways, the Government would keep Rs 23 billion grant for the up coming fiscal year, as against Rs 21 billion of the current year. The grant for Pakistan Railways was Rs 16 billion in the budget 2009-10, which was later enhanced up to Rs 21 billion. The Government recently announced to transfer the share of Hydel profits to the provinces. In the up coming fiscal budget the Government will allocate grants of Rs 25 billion to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Rs 6 billion to the Punjab as part of the shares of Hydel profit. Meanwhile, Sindh province will be allocated Rs 6 billion. According to the documents, the Government will keep Rs 8 billion for Baitul Mal against 7 billion of the current year. The National Internship Programme will be continued and an estimated 30,000 unemployed youth will be provided one-year internship programme and in this regard the Government would allocate Rs 4 billion for the coming fiscal year. The Government will extend the grant to Rs 12 billion to Azad Jammu and Kashmir for next financial year from existing Rs 11 billion in order to meet the expenditure requirements. The grant for Benazir Income Support Programme will also be increased to Rs 90 billion from Rs 70 billion of the budgetary allocation in 2009-10. However, later the grant for BISP was reduced to Rs 50 billion in the current fiscal year from announced Rs 70 billion. The documents further revealed that the grants for Internally Displace Persons (IDPs) would go up to Rs 61 billion from Rs 50 billion of the present fiscal year. Grants for PPAF, SME Support Fund and Venture Capital Fund would retain at Rs 7 billion, Rs 3 billion and Rs 3 billion respectively. The same grants for the said organisations were allocated in the present fiscal year. The government had planned to allocate worth Rs 10 billion for Export Investment Support Fund was allocated, however, it will be increased to Rs 40 billion in the coming fiscal year.

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