National Assembly (NA) approved federal budget for FY2021-22 on Tuesday (today).
The Finance Bill 2021-22 was discussed clause by clause in the National Assembly. The session was attended by PM Imran Khan, former President Asif Ali Zardari, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and other notable political leaders.
During the session, various amendments were accepted; with the ones proposed by treasury benches accepted, whereas amendments tabled by opposition were left rejected.
A resolution to present the budget for approval was adopted after vote count following an objection from an Opposition member over verbal voting.
The opposition benches chose not to challenge voice vote as they lacked the numbers to successfully prevent the budget from passing in the lower house.
Addressing the session, Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin expressed confidence that the government will achieve the targets prescribed in FY2021-22 budget.
The budget provisions special focus on poverty alleviation and aims to economic financially uplift four million poor households by providing interest free loans who will also be provided with Sehat Insaaf Cards.
Expressing his views on inflation, Shaukat Tarin noted that core inflation stands at 7% and admitted that food prices have increased.
Read More: All You Need To Know About FY2021-22 Federal Budget
However, government is spending Rs 62 billion to uplift the agricultural sector with billions in tax exemptions and subsidies on fertilizers and pesticides.
Key Features Of FY2021-22 Budget
- GDP growth target has been set at 4.8%
- No new taxes on salaried persons
- 10% increment in government employees’ salaries
- Rs 900 billion allocated for federal PSDP — 40% increase from 2020
- Rs 12 billion allocated for agriculture sector
- Rs 260 billion allocated for Ehsaas Program
- Tax collection target set at Rs 5829 billion
- The remittances with the 25% increase, reached US$ 29 billion
- Development budget increased from Rs630bn to Rs 900 billion
- Provincial share in NFC award fixed at Rs 3,411 billion.
- Provinces share in NFC increased, to receive extra Rs 707 billion.
- Rs 118 billion for power distribution
- Rs 61 billion for Viability Gap Fund
- Rs 14 billion for Climate Change mitigation projects
- US$ 1.1 billion for vaccines procurement
- Rs 100 billion for COVID-19 Emergency Fund
- Rs 20 billion and Rs 16 billion reserved for PIA and PSM
- Rs 98 billion for Karachi Transformation Plan
- Minimum wage increased to Rs 20,000
It is to be noted that Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin had presented Rs 8.4 trillion federal budget for FY2021-22 on June 11th earlier this month.
In his post-budget press conference, Shaukat Tarin had apprised that the government aims to collect additional Rs 500 billion in taxes in the next fiscal year.
Highlighting the imbalance between country’s imports and exports, the finance minister stressed that Pakistan needs to increase its exports to earn more dollars.
Farrukh Habib – Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, took to social media to express gratitude to government allies who played a crucial role in the approval of federal budget.
The minister also criticized opposition whose members were absent from the budget session and who had previously made hollow claims of preventing the budget from being approved from the parliament.
