Budget 2024-25: Protecting ‘sacred cows’ again

The government claims it is unable to do much to appease the business community given the current circumstances, even if it wishes to. The business community’s tough stance towards the budget was expected. Although the government asserts it is in talks with business leaders, significant revisions in fiscal policy are unlikely. Therefore, minor adjustments to reverse or scale down certain taxation measures may occur. Fiscal space for these changes has been created by cutting Rs250 billion from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). These modifications are not expected to affect the essence of the budget, which will have already been passed by the National Assembly when this story is published. The revised PSDP has been reduced to Rs1.1 trillion from the originally proposed Rs1.4tr.