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
Every year, the federal budget is a cruel reminder of the Pakistani economy’s descent into chaos and the meaninglessness of numbers. The mediocrity of the size of outlays, the unrealistic targets and the crushing burden of debt are all recurring features now, with no end in sight to this madness. However, unlike all previous editions, this budget was unique in one respect: the focus on informat
The budget for the next fiscal year will do little to allay the International Monetary Fund’s concerns and makes it more difficult for Pakistan to complete the pending ninth and 10th reviews of the current bailout package, experts say. This view, shared by a Washington-based economist Uzair Younus, is backed by many in the US capital about how the budget impacts Pakistan’s chances of receiving