Miftah Ismail said despite financial constraints, the government allocated Rs 65 billion for the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
He announced to provide about 100,000 laptops to students across the country on easy installments. Funds had been allocated for providing state-of-the-art equipment to upgrade Engineering and Technology Education, he added.
Commenting on the strategy to tackle the climate change related issues, he said a huge amount of Rs 38 billion would be utilized to address climate change, food security and information technology (IT) needs.
He said the government planned to spend Rs100 billion on constructing multipurpose dams, including Diamer-Bhasha, Mohmand, Dasu and Nai Gaj dams, and command area projects.
Miftah said energy and water resources projects were interlinked and allocation of Rs 183 billion had been made in the budget.
He said the government was committed to improve the healthcare delivery system and earmarked an amount of Rs 24 billion for the purpose, which would also be given complete tax exemption to charity hospitals.
The minister announced the establishment of National Youth Commission (NYC) for empowering the young people through their socio-economic development. Multiple new schemes for the youth would be launched this year to enhance their participation in the development of the country, he added.
He said over two million job opportunities would be created this year under the Youth Employment Policy. A scheme would be launched for providing interest-free loans amounting to Rs 500,000 to the youth for promoting entrepreneurship culture in the country.
The young people could also get soft loans of upto Rs 25 million under the scheme, he said, adding 25 per cent quota was fixed for women.
The minister said the young women would be imparted skills in high-tech and other fields on priority. Youth development centers would also be set up across the country, which would enable them to access integrated job portal, he added.
Keeping in view importance of energy for development of the country, he said the government had earmarked Rs 73 billion for power sector as it was committed to bringing improvement in electricity generation, transmission and distribution on priority.
He said it was proposed to exempt sales tax on import of solar panels and local supply, besides easy loans would be provided to consumers using less than 200 units for purchasing solar panels, he said. It would not only help promote environment friendly energy in the country but also reduce import of expensive oil and gas.
Miftah said the government would soon announce a new gas tariff under which provision of the commodity to the industrial sector to be ensured at competitive rates as compared to other countries. It would help increase the country’s overall export volume, he added.