Expenses shoot up 50% in 7 months

ISLAMABAD: Expenditures of the federal government shot up 50% to Rs7.5 trillion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year, a challenge that the political leadership is planning to tackle through a technocratic-bureaucratic setup in the finance ministry. As against expenses of Rs5 trillion during July-January of the last fiscal year, the federal government spent Rs7.53 trillion during the first seven months of the current year, according to sources. Interest payments on the debt of Rs64.8 trillion came in at Rs4.66 trillion, or 65% of current expenditures. Sources told The Express Tribune that despite making efforts, the growth in expenditures went above 50% mainly due to the wrong decision of pegging the interest rate with the headline inflation.