The Pakistan Muslim League-N government is set on introducing a number of revenue-generation measures in the budget for financial year 2014-15, including new taxes that are expected to yield an estimated Rs255 billion.
Sources in the finance ministry say these measures are likely to hit the middle class the hardest.
The new proposals, guided by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, aim to bring down the budget deficit to 4.8 per cent next year from this year’s 5.7pc. The burden of this decrease will largely be shouldered by the middle class and non-industrialists as the cost of living is expected to increase as a result of the new indirect taxes.