Government prepares for upcoming federal budget

The coalition government has started to prepare for the upcoming budget.

According to reports, important economic targets like economic growth will be discussed in a meeting of the Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APC). The meeting is likely to be held on June 4.

Targets for GDP growth rate, inflation, exports, imports and remittance targets for the year will be set as well.

The meeting will also propose to set the federal development budget at Rs700 billion next year.

The targets for the agriculture, industrial and services sectors, while other targets, including investment and national savings, will also be set.

After this meeting, another meeting of the National Economic Council will be convened as well.

Earlier, it was reported that about Rs7,255 billion has been proposed as the FBR’s tax collection target for the next year along with the additional tax of Rs1,155 billion, Rs700 billion for development programmes and Rs843 billion for customs duty.

Meanwhile, the expenditure for defence budget would be Rs1,586 billion, while Rs3,523 billion would be spent on interest and loans. An estimated total is to be Rs12,994 billion for the next financial year.

It merits mentioning that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has given approval to present the federal budget in the National Assembly on June 10. The budget will be presented by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail.

The finance secretary has written to the cabinet secretary to hold a cabinet meeting on June 10 to approve the budget proposals. Similarly, another meeting of the National Economic Council is under consideration for June 7, followed by a special cabinet meeting on the budget on June 10.