The federal government has decided to take a string of measures for the development of industries in the federal budget 2024-25 as a 100% hike has been proposed for the Ministry of Industry and Production, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Monday, quoting its sources.

An outlay of Rs5.795 billion has been suggested as development budget for the new financial year.

For the current fiscal year, the development budget of the Ministry of Industry and Production was 3 billion rupees.

It was also proposed to spare funds for the 13 ongoing projects of the ministry in the next financial year.

It was suggested to allocate Rs5.645 billion for the ongoing projects of the ministry, the sources said, adding it was also decided to launch a new project of in the next financial year.

It was proposed to earmark Rs1.3 billion for the construction of 132-kva grid station at Port Qasim’s Industrial Park in Karachi.

There is also a proposal to spare Rs700 million development budget for an industrial park in Karachi and Rs1 billion for construction of a special economic zone in Lasbela district of Balochistan, the sources said.

It was also suggested to allocate Rs660 million to set up SME business facilitation centres in different major cities including Karachi.

There was a budget proposal of Rs400 million for an industrial technology project.

There was also a proposal to allocate Rs300 million for setting up 1,000 industrial stitching units across the country and another Rs300 million for construction of industrial designer, automation centres in Karachi, Lahore and Sialkot, the sources further said.

Rs200 million development budget sought for development of engineering industry in the country.

Reporter Waqas Azeem