Protecting development spending despite challenges: Jhagra.

PESHAWAR -- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra on Saturday said despite facing difncult economic situation, the provincial government had tried to keep the size of its development spending intact.

Addressing the post-budget briefing here, Mr Jhagra said Chief Minister Mahmood Khan was very clear about protecting development spending as it was stimulus for public investment in an economy.

He said despite economic problems, the province had allocated Rs318 billion for development, which was more than Sindh`s development budget and was nearly equal to Punjab`s development budget, which stood at Rs336 billion.

Mr Jhagra said borrowing was necessary for economy.

`To keep the economy running, the gov-ernment needs to allocate development outlay a bigger share,` he said.

The minister said the government was the biggest spender in recessions and economic slowdowns and in KP, it was the government, which pumped one in five rupees into the economy.

He said the government would make public investment by spending on roads, construction and other projects and that stimulus would lead to protecting the economy. Mr Jhagra said the government would keep a close look at cost-saving opportunities and would try to explore different avenues, including sukook, domestic borrowing and arrangements with international financial institutions to raise the debt.

He said KP`s debt profile was very favourable and debt profiling of the province for four decades showed that it would remain between two and four per cent.

`In case when your debt is about two to four per cent, one can borrow at the right time for right reasons. However, it must be ensured that the borrowed sums should be put to use properly,` he said.

Mr Jhagra said immediately, the size ofdebt was not clear.

He, however, said the government would try to meet its shortfall through borrowing and operationalshortfallsavings.

He said the government had increased its spending capacity in merged districts.

`In initial six months of the current fiscal, spending remained at lower side due to time in approval of schemes and other administrative schemes. By the end of the current fiscal, Rs37 billion will likely to be spent in merged districts, while for the next year, the...