The incumbent coalition government is all set to present budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 in the Parliament on June 10 (today), with a special focus on fiscal consolidation to contain budget deficit. The budget would be presented by Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Miftah Ismail. According to official sources, the budget has been formulated while considering the existing challenges being faced by economy at domestic and international fronts. Hence, mitigating people’s suffering, transforming agriculture sector, promoting Information Technology (IT), boosting industrial and bolstering businesses would be the main focus of the document.
The budget has been prepared in close coordination between all departments and ministries involved in budget related events including the presentation of the budget in the Parliament and launching of the Economic Survey, they added. Keeping in view the robust growth of revenues during the current fiscal year (2021-22), the government is likely to set the revenue collection target at over Rs.7 trillion for the fiscal year 20222-23. The coalition government has decided to allocate Rs800 billion for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in the next fiscal year, said sources.A development budget worth Rs800 billion has been proposed for the next financial year, out of which Rs538 billion will be allocated for federal ministries and departments. It has been proposed to allocate Rs 121billion to the National Highway Authority (NHA), while Rs96 billion has been proposed for water resources. Rs50 billion has been proposed for the development of the merged tribal districts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while Rs96.36 billion has been proposed in the development budget for Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Reports said that in the energy sector, a development budget of Rs49 billion has been proposed for Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) and Rs 33 billion for Railways. Meanwhile, the government has decided to allocate Rs 25 billion for Atomic Energy Commission, while Rs41.87 billion will be allocated to Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Rs2.5 billion for Aviation. Rs84 billion has been proposed for energy sector, Rs83bn for water schemes while Rs39 billion will be given to Housing Ministry and Planning.
