The government will present the country’s budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 today to get a new bailout deal with the IMF.
According to a source, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb will present the budget — the country’s plan for spending money and how to get the money — in the National Assembly at 4pm.
The government’s plan says, a big debate on the budget will start on June 20. The members will talk and vote on the budget from June 26 to June 28.
Yesterday, the government shared the Pakistan Economic Survey 2023-24. The survey said that the economy did not meet many of its goals because of hard times. But farming had very good growth.
Last Monday, the National Economic Council (NEC) — with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and others — agreed on a Rs3.792 trillion federal Public Sector Development Programme. This is more than 47% more than last year.
Last week, the finance ministry and the IMF talked a lot before the budget. The IMF wants more tax money, no more subsidies, more taxes on farming, more taxes on power, gas and oil, selling sick government groups, and better leaders.
One person said that the budget will do what the IMF wants. But it is hard to follow money rules and not give people things they like.
The only good thing was farming
The PES said that the farming part of the economy grew by 6.25%. The economy grew by 2.38% in FY2024, after getting smaller last year.
The PES said that the money plan was good. The country had 3.7% of GDP extra money, and 1.5% of GDP in extra money before paying debts. The government got 41% more money, not from taxes.
The bank of the government kept a hard money plan, with a 22% money rule, and got less big costs. The price of things only went up 26%, not 28.2% like last year.
The money that left the country got 87.5% smaller. It was $0.5 billion, not $4.1bn like last year. And there is $8.0bn in the bank.
But the PES said less extra money. The big money things did not grow, and there is a lot of money we owe.
The PES said that the country gave out 73.24% more extra money than last year. The total is Rs3.879tr.
Mr. Aurangzeb said that all things must pay taxes. He said that he can start next year with the IMF’s help.
He added, there is not a good money plan. And the country’s big businesses and power need help.
To read our blog on “What is new in the Pakistan FY25 budget?,” click here
