ISLAMABAD (National Times) – The federal budget worth more than Rs 9,000 billion for the fiscal year 2022-23 has been unveiled today. Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail presented the budget in the National Assembly.<\/p>\n
Addressing the National Assembly, the minister started his speech by pointing out “mistakes by the previous government”. “Each year, the budget was presented by a different person,” he said.<\/p>\n
The minister said that due to the previous government, the IMF programme, which should have ended this year, got suspended in February, and basic reforms that should have taken place in 2019 were not implemented.<\/p>\n
The poor-income group needs to be supported, he said and added this group buys goods that are produced in the country.<\/p>\n
“Bringing economic stability is our top priority. The basic problem of our economy is that a growth rate of 3-4% doesn t help our growing population, whereas a growth rate of 5-6% leads to a current account deficit.”<\/p>\n
He criticised former PM Imran Khan by saying that he never cared for the poor for he himself said that \u201ckeeping a check on potato and tomato prices is not a PM\u2019s job\u201d. The minister said that Budget 2022-23 will focus on providing facilities to farmers growing crops that produce cooking oil, like corn and sunflower, so that the country doesn\u2019t have to import palm oil, which is touching a record high in international market.<\/p>\n
According to Miftah Ismail, the PTI-led govt took loans of Rs20,000 billion during their tenure. \u201cThis is 80% of the total loans taken since the time of Liaquat Ali Khan.\u201d This was because they spent more than they earned, he added. <\/p>\n
Major Allocations
\nRs3,950 billion allocated for debt servicing in FY23<\/p>\n
Rs1,450 billion for Defence expenditure<\/p>\n
Rs550 billion for civilian administration<\/p>\n
Rs530 billion for pension expenditure<\/p>\n
Rs699 billion allocated as subsidies<\/p>\n
Rs1,242 billion allocated as grants<\/p>\n
Rs699 billion allocated for targeted subsidy<\/p>\n
Rs65 billion for Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Rs44 billion for its development<\/p>\n
Rs17 billion allocated to the IT sector<\/p>\n
Rs21 Billion allocated for Benazir Nashunuma Program<\/p>\n
Rs800 billion allocated for PSDP<\/p>\n
Rs364 billion allocated for Benazir Income Support Program<\/p>\n
Rs10bn allocated for improvement of climate projects<\/p>\n
Rs202bn allocated for Transport & Communications sector<\/p>\n
Govt allocates Rs 600 mln for Religious Affairs & Interfaith Harmony Division<\/p>\n
Austerity<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister said austerity is the top priority of the present government. Reducing government s expenditure is part of this budget and we are taking concrete steps in this regard. He said there will be complete ban on purchase of vehicles. Except, development projects, there will also be a ban on procurement of furniture and other items. The petrol quota of cabinet members and government officials will be reduced by 40 percent. There will also be ban on foreign tours under government expense, except the important ones.<\/p>\n
Cash subsidy<\/p>\n
Miftah Islamabad said that a family with household income of less than Rs40,000 will be given a transfer of Rs2,000 every month.<\/p>\n
Inflation<\/p>\n
Ismail said that the government is aware that the common man is struggling with high prices and we are doing are best to bring them down.
\n\u201cInflation has been high, but for next year, the target has been set at 11.5%,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Growth<\/p>\n
The minister said the government had to move towards “sustainable growth”, adding that the growth target for next year was set at 5 per cent. He said the tax to GDP ratio is estimated to the increase to 9.2 percent from the current 8.6 percent during the next financial year. He recalled that we had left this ratio at 11.1 percent in the year 2017-18. He said the overall deficit which currently stands at 8.6 percent will be gradually brought down. This will be brought down to 4.9 percent in the next fiscal year. Similarly, the overall primary balance which is currently -2.4 percent of the GDP will be improved to 0.19 percent.<\/p>\n
Imports<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister said the imports, which are expected to be 76 billion dollars during the current fiscal year will be reduced to 70 billion dollars in the next financial year. At present, exports are 31.3 billion dollars, which will be enhanced to 35 billion dollars in the next fiscal year. The current account balance will be reduced to -2.2 percent of the GDP from the current -4.1 percent.<\/p>\n
BISP<\/p>\n
Miftah Ismail said that the scope of Benazir Education Stipend Programme will be expanded to ten million children. Over 35 billion rupees have been proposed for this programme. Ten thousand more students will be given Benazir Undergraduate Scholarship at a cost of nine billion rupees. The network of Benazir Nashonuma Programme will be expanded to all the districts, which will cost about 21.5 billion rupees. Besides, six billion rupees have been set aside for Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal for the medical treatment and assistance of deserving families.<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister said the budget of BISP has been increased to 364 billion rupees for the next fiscal year. In addition, 12 billion rupees have been allocated for provision of subsidy on essential commodities through Utility Stores Corporation. An additional amount of five billion rupees has been set aside for Ramadan Package.<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister said the facility of Benazir Kafalat Cash Transfer Programme will be available to nine million deserving families under BISP in the next fiscal year. For this, 266 billion rupees have been reserved.<\/p>\n
Energy sector<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister said that the energy sector has pivotal importance for the people as well as the industries and trade. For these sectors and the people we gave an additional subsidy of 214 billion rupees. He said 573 billion rupees have been earmarked in the next financial year so that the people could afford the electricity in the harsh weather of summer. He said we released 248 billion rupees for the payment of outstanding amounts in the petroleum sector and 71 billion rupees will be provided in the next fiscal year. He said we will soon announce the new gas tariffs which will be aimed at providing gas to the industries at competitive rates which will help in bolster exports.<\/p>\n
Higher Education Commission<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister said we have earmarked 65 billion rupees in the current budget for Higher Education Commission. In addition 44 billion rupees have been allocated for the development schemes of the HEC which is 67 percent higher than the previous year. He said this is manifestation of our commitment towards the youth. He said we are encouraging the provinces to fully fulfill their responsibilities regarding promotion of higher education in the coming years. The HEC budget envisages five thousand scholarships for the students of Balochistan and tribal districts. He said a separate scholarship scheme has also been included for the coastal areas of Balochistan.<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister announced to provide one hundred thousand laptops on easy installments to the students across the country. Funds have also been allocated for provision of state of the art equipment to upgrade education of engineering and technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD (National Times) – The federal budget worth more than Rs 9,000 billion for the fiscal year 2022-23 has been unveiled today. Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail presented the budget in the National Assembly. Addressing the National Assembly, the minister started his speech by pointing out “mistakes by the previous government”. “Each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n