The coalition government has identified key risks to the next year’s budget and the medium-term macroeconomic outlook, including the current financial and operational performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), rising public debt, movement of interest and exchange rates by the State Bank of Pakistan, and climate change. In an integrity statement submitted to parliament required under the Pub
‘No new taxes’ in the FY24 budget, a headline on the website of this newspaper said after the presentation of the budget on June 9. Petrol and petroleum products were no exception. Despite the ballooning fiscal deficit, no new levies were imposed on them. Budget makers were under pressure. They were obligated to follow the instructions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Fund has be
Pakistan’s banking sector is like a rich patriarch who’s expected to bail out distant relatives falling on hard times every now and then. Yet everyone resents the same patriarch for his high status and vast wealth that they believe is undeserved and acquired through dubious means. A glance at recent federal budgets, including 2023-24, shows the government is quick to pile too much tax on the ba
As the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues to elude Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif shared the pessimism of his finance czar Ishaq Dar about dealings with the global moneylender, saying in case the deal with the Fund did not go as planned, he would take the nation into confidence and find a way forward. In the same breath, the premier expressed optimism about
Though no budget can appease all segments of society, as one man’s meat is another’s poison, the policymakers have at least rectified their direction as far as the allocations made for agriculture in the budget 2023-24 are concerned. Increasing the bank loan allocation and targeting young farmers for the purpose, subsidising import of seed, solarisation of agriculture tube-wells and farm machin