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Economic Survey 2024-25: Growth stumbles as key targets missed

Next year will be a turnaround story,” Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb promised on Monday as he unveiled the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25 (PES) document, which highlighted widespread slippages across major sectors of the economy in the outgoing fiscal year. Reviewing the economy report card, the finance minister suggested that Pakistan’s performance should be evaluated in a global conte

Exemptions hit record as tax revenue falls short

Tax exemptions granted by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) surged to an all-time high of Rs5.84 trillion in the outgoing fiscal year, marking a 51 per cent increase from Rs3.879tr a year ago, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25 unveiled by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Monday. The unprecedented rise in tax concessions comes at a time when the FBR is grappling with signi

ECONOMIC SURVEY 2024-25: Capacity payments weigh heavily on electricity users

Although the country’s total installed power generation capacity is set to rise to 46,605 megawatts in the outgoing fiscal year (FY25), substantial capacity payments to idle power plants continue to burden electricity consumers nationwide. However, energy experts in both the public and private sectors remain optimistic that this capacity payment burden — estimated at Rs12 to Rs15 per unit and p

Debt grows moderately to Rs76 trillion

The total debt of Pakistan stood at Rs76.01 trillion at the end of March this year, with domestic debt at Rs51.52tr and external debt at Rs24.49tr, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25 released on Monday. Growth in public debt was 6.7 per cent, which was lower as compared to the growth of 7.4pc in the same period of the preceding year, mainly due to increased primary surplus. Mo

Big industry production contracts amid challenges

Despite claims of achieving macroeconomic stability, the Large-Scale Manufacturing (LSM), which accounts for 67.5 per cent of the overall manufacturing sector, contracted by 1.5pc during July-March FY25. The Economic Survey, unveiled by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Monday, attributed this decline to persistent structural bottlenecks, elevated input costs, and contractions leading to n