Economic experts have called upon the newly elected government to align upcoming budget on the priority agenda of macroeconomic stabilization, development and economic growth.
The experts were speaking at a pre-budget seminar titled ‘Agenda for Stabilization & Economic Growth’ organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Tuesday.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr Ashfaque H. Khan, Dean of the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) denounced the conventional way of managing fiscal crisis such as reduction in budget deficit and development programs and added that such measures have brought pain and sufferings to people around the world.
He urged the new government to devise ‘forward looking macroeconomic policies’ which according to him, strike a balance between ‘stabilization’ and ‘developmental priorities’. He said macroeconomic policies should not focus narrowly on reducing budget deficit and debt stabilization but should be supportive of growth and employment generation.
Talking of economic reform agenda, he said that there is greater need for resource mobilization through reforming tax system and bringing efficacy in government expenditure particularly by restructuring or privatization of public sector enterprises which are putting extreme burden on public exchequer. He also proposed proper fiscal decentralization, energy sector reform, reforms in central bank, improving investment climate, promoting inclusive growth and removing ‘manufacturing defects’ of the new NFC Award.
In his introductory remarks, Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Deputy Executive Director SDPI suggested the new government to increase efficiency of existing energy generation and transmission system and improve effectiveness of public sector development program in short term. “However, in the longer term an enabling environment must be provided to private sector to take a lead in the development process,” he added.
For doing so he suggested privatization or increased role of private sector in public sector enterprises, strengthening institutions that promote competition in markets, bringing down the tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and long term investment in improving connectivity across the country.
Economic expert Safiya Aftab deliberated on social sector challenges in upcoming budget. She was of the view that Federal Government has put the bulk of resources available for social protection into BISP and this trend would most probably continue as the program is likely to continue with the change of name.
Comparing the last year development expenditures after 18th amendment, she said that education expenditure has not shown significant increases in real terms in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She also cited that development expenditure falls in Punjab and Balochistan but is consistently rising in KP mainly due to building of infrastructure damaged in war against extremism such as schools, hospitals and roads.
Giving concluding remarks she said that drastically raising the expenditure on health and education may not be the answer but provinces now needs to start medium term planning exercises for use of additional funds disbursed through new NFC. In most cases, a reappraisal of priorities and improving the basic services is the need of the hour rather than high profile schemes, she added.
