ISLAMABAD : The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) led collation government on Friday presented its first ever tax laden budget having Rs 9502 billion outlay for fiscal year 2022-23. Finance minister, Miftah Ismail, presented the budget in the national assembly here.
In the budget. the revenue target for next fiscal year has been set at Rs 7004 billion for which federal share would be Rs 4904 billion and provinces will collect Rs 4100 billion in next fiscal year. Non tax income has been estimated at Rs 2000 billion for 2022-23.
The budget envisages new tax on luxury cars, cigarettes and imported phone sets . Likewise, the government has proposed massive increase in income tax for next fiscal year. The agriculture machinery has been exempted from taxes. For encouraging the production of solar energy, the government proposes various incentives for import of solar panels and related technology. The government has proposed increase by 15 % in salaries of the government employees and 5 % increase in pensions of retired government employees. The government has also proposed reduction in the prices of the medicine and palm oil in the next budget. The government has proposed 10 $ duty on import of paper . Retailers will make be made liable to fixed tax as per their electricity consumption for 2022-23.
The Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocation of the federal government has been fixed at Rs 800 billion. The government has promised to utilize 90 % of the PSDP in the next fiscal year on the on-going projects including those which were undertaken by the ousted government of Tehreek e Insaf (PTI). Pakistan will spend Rs 1523 billion on defence in the next fiscal year. The civil government expense has been fixed at Rs 530 billion. Pakistan will have to pay huge amount of Rs 3950 billion for debt servicing in the next fiscal year. It’s a most money guzzling area for Pakistan. In the outgoing fiscal year, Pakistan paid Rs 3144 billion for debt servicing. In a total layout of Rs 9502 billion for 2022-23 , Rs 3950 billion will go to one head I e debt servicing. It is the most painful figure that hardly comes under debate in Pakistan. One needs to find out some magic where a country with such an alarming level of debt servicing could come out of debt trap. Hardly, any Pakistani economist touches this grey area in his/ her professional debate on TV or at any other platform. One can listen Pakistani economists bashing the army for its budget which has been always been one third of the cost that Pakistan pays on yearly basis on debt servicing. Can one ask from these economists who always target the army for its budget, but never speak a word on money this poor country was paying as debts servicing.
The budget is based on pro export strategy as the government set an export target of $ 35 billion for next fiscal year, showing an increase of $ 3.7 billion and at the same time it unveiled an import discouraging plan by introducing some new restrictions on unnecessary imports to reduce trade deficit in the next fiscal year. The government has set a target of $ 70 billion import in 2022-23 against $ 76 billion in 2021-22. In next fiscal year, the government will again rely heavily on remittance for having a breather as It sets a target of $ 33.2 billion remittances for 2022-23 against $ 3101 billion in 2021-22. The budget also carries new windows for young generation of Pakistan. The government has announced an interest free scheme for inspiring them to opt for small business to make living for their families. The youth of this country will get 0.5 million interest free loan. The government has also announced to provide bigger loans for businesses up to Rs 25 million for youth of the country. To make women a part of economic growth and ensure women empowerment in the society the government has fixed 25 percent quota for women in the loan schemes. The government has also enhanced Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to additional 6 million families and allocated Rs 242 billion for the programme. Over and above,
The government has allocated Rs 699 for targeted subsidies in the budget for next fiscal year.
