Finance Minister Ishaq Dar will be presenting the PML-N government’s second budget in the National Assembly today. The finance bill for the fiscal year 2014-15 includes fiscal adjustments of more than Rs300 billion (about 1 per cent of the gross domestic product), achieved by slashing subsidies and cutting back on tax exemptions.
A meeting of the federal cabinet, to be presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, will be held in the afternoon to formally approve the budgetary measures before they are tabled in parliament.
A source close to the finance minister said the federal government’s total expenditure over the next year had been estimated at about Rs3.87 trillion, including a Public Sector Development Programme worth Rs525bn.
According to sources, the only relief measures the government has envisaged would be the 10-15 per cent increase in the salaries of the civil and military workforce as well as a 15-20pc increase in their pensions.
The budget will propose steps to expand the tax base by reducing tax exemptions, improving audit and incentives for documented sales and purchases. The government is looking to curtail subsidies by about Rs110bn to Rs225bn next year.
