Maaz Mahmod says budget deficit going up despite govt claim of tight control over expenditures
\nOur Correspondent
\nIslamabad
\nThe All Pakistan Business Forum (APBF) has asked the government to keep a strong check on its expenditure and high cost of debt servicing to contain budget deficit, which is projected to cross Rs4 trillion -almost 6% of the GDP in current fiscal year of 2022-23.
\nAPBF President Syed Maaz Mahmood observed that the budget deficit is going up despite the government claim of tight control over expenditures, while the only main head of expenditure that remains out of control is the debt servicing cost, he said.
\nHe asked the government to revise macroeconomic and fiscal framework, whereby the budget deficit and primary deficit are projected to escalate massively against the envisaged targets.
\nThe government has envisaged a budget deficit target of 4.9 per cent of the GDP for the current fiscal year and it seems hard for restricting the budget deficit within the desired limits mainly because of difficulties in achieving the fixed revenue target and curtailing the expenditures at the twilight of the government\u2019s tenure for completion of its tenure.
\nExpressing serious concern over the high jump in country\u2019s budget deficit \u2013 the gap between the government\u2019s income and its expenditures, the APBF Chairman Ibrahim Qureshi said the primary deficit is now assessed to touch a deficit of 2.5 percent of GDP, equivalent to Rs2.15 trillion against the target of surplus of Rs150 billions.
\nHe maintained that the failure to reform the tax system and increase revenue collection is a major factor behind heavy domestic and foreign borrowings by the government.
\nIbrahim Qureshi claimed that the total government expenditure has increased massively during this period mainly due to high cost of debt servicing, which has jumped by more than 20 percent.
\nMaaz Mahmood observed that Pakistan\u2019s fiscal deficit continued with old traditional practices as the development budget became the major victim among three major Ds on the expenditure front, including debt servicing, defence and development.
\nThe Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) could only utilize Rs0.74 trillion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year as the spending remained halted in the aftermath of severe floods.
\nQuoting the data, he said that Pakistan\u2019s budget deficit in absolute terms almost doubled in the first quarter by touching the figure of Rs800 billion in the current fiscal against Rs430 billion in the same period of the last financial year.
\nThe budget deficit in the percentage of the GDP escalated sharply as it stood at 1 per cent of the GDP in the first three months of the current fiscal year despite a revenue surplus generated by the provinces to the tune of Rs215 billion against 0.5 per cent of the GDP in the same period of the last financial year.
\nThe APBF President stated that Pakistan\u2019s fiscal policy continued to focus primarily on macroeconomic stabilization, in response to the financial crisis, instead of putting more emphasis on reforms to foster long-term growth through industrialization by adopting advanced technology.
\nThe federal government\u2019s budget deficit stood at Rs1.02 trillion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year and the provinces generated a revenue surplus of Rs0.218 trillion, so the consolidated overall budget deficit was brought down to Rs0.808 trillion, equivalent to slightly over 1 per cent of the GDP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maaz Mahmod says budget deficit going up despite govt claim of tight control over expenditures Our Correspondent Islamabad The All Pakistan Business Forum (APBF) has asked the government to keep a strong check on its expenditure and high cost of debt servicing to contain budget deficit, which is projected to cross Rs4 trillion -almost 6% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11612],"class_list":{"0":"post-300172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-syed-maaz-mahmood"},"yoast_head":"\n