Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that the government had been focusing on improving the real sector growth through promotion of agriculture, industrial and services sectors of economy.
“The government is focused on bringing improvement in the real sector growth through inclusive growth in agriculture, industrial and services sectors,” he informed the Senate in a written reply to a question raised by a member of the Upper House.
He said that realizing the importance of sub-sectors of the economy; the government had initiated different programmes including National Agriculture Emergency Programme (NAEP) under which thirteen-mega projects worth Rs277 billion were under execution currently.
He said that the objective of NAEP was to bring about improvements in water availability, soil conservation and shrimp fanning and establishing new agriculture markets.
The minister added that Rs10.964 billion mega project National Oilseed Enhancement Program (NOEP) under NAEP was launched to boost the adoption of oilseed crops at cost of Rs10.964 billion for 5 years.
Likewise, the government allocated Rs10 billion for locust control in current budget while an amount of Rs 12billion was allocated under Public Sector Development Programme 2020-21 for ensuring food security and promoting agriculture sector .
He said that the government enhanced agriculture credit disbursement by 3.5 percent during the fiscal year 2020 to Rs 1214.7 billion as compared to the corresponding period of last year while during the During the first three months of financial year 2020-21, agriculture credit disbursement stood at Rs250 billion.
Meanwhile, to support industrial sector, the government had taken many initiatives including reduction of Federal Excise Duty (FED) on cement from Rs2 per kilogram to Rs1.5 per kilogram, relaxation of excise duties on textile items.
