Pakistan boosts spending in election-year budget

Pakistan's Minister for Finance, Revenue, Statistics and Economic Affairs Ishaq Dar on Friday said that during last four years the economy had been put on a strong footing as the government was taking measures to achieve the goal of economic stability.

Presenting the Rs5.310 trillion budget for 2017-18, the minister said the amount included proposed revenue collection by the Federal Board of Revenue of Rs4 trillion as 14 per cent increase in tax collection was expected during the next fiscal year.

He said the share of provincial governments in total income would be Rs2.384 trillion that was 12.4 per cent more than the corresponding period of last year and the share of the federal government would be Rs2.926 trillion.

Similarly, the minister said, total expenditure was expected to be Rs4.753 trillion, which was 11.7 per cent more than the previous year. Maximum increase in that category had been made in the development budget.

He said there was a proposal to allocate Rs920 billion for defence as compared to the previous year's Rs841 billion. Moreover, with 40 per cent increase in PSDP, the amount proposed was Rs1 trillion against Rs715 billion last year.

Dar said the budget deficit had decreased to 4.1 per cent of the GDP against 4.2 per cent last year.

He said it was an honour to present the fifth budget of this government as "we achieved different milestones during last four years, including budget deficit, inflation, foreign exchange reserves, tax collection, and GDP growth in different sectors of the economy."

The minister said fiscal deficit had been controlled, load-shedding reduced, and GDP growth rate recorded at 5.3 per cent, which was proposed to cross 6 per cent during the next fiscal year.

Ishaq Dar said today Pakistan has foreign exchange reserves worth imports of four months, as compared to reserves worth imports of two weeks in 2013, while tax collection had recorded 81 per cent increase during the last four years.

He said most of international rating and financial institutions have acknowledged Pakistan's progress in the economic sector and have predicted Pakistan to be part of G-20 by 2030 in the wake of measures taken by the government.

The minister said, due to strict monetary discipline and reforms in the country, Pakistan has been able to achieve these goals and the government had been successful in meeting targets mentioned in its election manifesto.

He said this year GDP growth rate has been recorded at 5.28 percent as compared to 3.16 per cent in 2013, and it will cross six percent during the next fiscal as the volume of economy has exceeded $300 billion.

During the last year, agriculture sector recorded 3.46 per cent growth, services sector -5.98 per cent growth while per capita income at present is $1,629 as compared to $1,334 in 2013 showing an increase of 22 per cent.

He said the FBR tax collections had shown 81 per cent increase during last four years. Its present volume is Rs3.521 trillion as compared to Rs1.946 trillion of 2013. Interest rate has been decreased to give incentives to agriculture and industrial sectors.

He said agriculture loans had increased to Rs600 billion as compared to Rs336 billion of 2013, while private sector loans volume has grown to Rs507 billion.

The minister said, remittances had recorded an increase to the tune of $19.9 billion while Pakistan Stock Exchange had surpassed 52,000 points and international rating institutions have ranked it as the best economy in Asia and 5th emerging stock market across the world.

He said market capitalisation has increased from previous $51 billion to $97 billion while 5855 new companies had been registered during the last nine months, while 24 important laws were enacted and ten more are in the pipeline.

Source: Khaleej Times