The National Assembly approved the federal budget amounting to Rs 14.48 trillion for the fiscal year 2023-24, which was later signed by the acting President Sadiq Sanjrani.
Federal Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar presented the finance bill in the National Assembly. Speaker of the Assembly, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf invited members to discuss the bill.
During the course of the discussion proposals by Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, Saira Banu, Nasir Cheema, Zehra Wadood Fatimi, Nawab Sher Waseer, Asiya Azim and other various sections, which were rejected by the Assembly. However, one amendment proposed by Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali was approved by the Assembly and included in the bill.
The Finance Minister proposed that the financial bill for the fiscal year 2023-24 be approved to provide legal protection to the budget. The National Assembly approved the bill.
In the light of the Senate’s recommendations, the Assembly also approved the amendments proposed by the Finance Minister in the financial bill for 2023-24.
After thorough deliberation and consideration of the proposals for the federal budget presented in the National Assembly, the Finance Minister announced some changes in the figures for revenue targets and other matters in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The revenue target of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been revised from Rs 9.2 trillion to Rs 9.415 trillion, while the provinces’ share has increased from 5.276 trillion to 5.39 trillion rupees.
Similarly, the expenses of the federal government have increased from 14.46 trillion to 14.48 trillion rupees, the pension volume will be 801 billion rupees instead of 761 billion rupees, the subsidy volume will be 1.405 trillion rupees, and the grants volume will be 1.405 trillion rupees.
As after the passage of the budget, the government would have to go into the elections, so it raised the salary of the government servants working in BPS-1 to BPS-16 by 35 percent.
Similarly the pay and allowances of the officers in BPS-17 and above by 30 percent. Whereas the pension is increased by 17.5 percent.
On the other hand, the Finance Minister clarified that officers from grade 17 to 22 will be able to receive one pension if they were receiving two pensions previously. This provision will not apply to employees below grade 17. Similarly, a period of 10 years has been fixed for the dependents in case of the demise of a pensioner.
The Finance Minister said that pension reforms are necessary as the volume of pensions has already increased to 800 billion rupees annually. Contrary to many countries, the situation regarding pensions in Pakistan is better.
The pension reforms are in the pipeline under which a contributory system of pension would be introduced in the country. In the proposed system, the government employee would contribute a fixed amount on a monthly basis towards his pension and at the end of service, the government would add up a prescribed percentage to the total amount before paying to the individual concerned.
Though the budget is passed by the parliament, the government is ready to impose more taxes of 215 billion to fulfil the condition laid down by the IMF to resume talks with the government of Pakistan.
The new taxes would bring a wave of inflation in the country, which would rescind the work of the government to present its last budget before elections.