Finance Minister of Pakistan Miftah Ismail presents budget 2022-23

Islamabad ( The Breaking Times – Arshad Faooq Butt )

A budget meeting is held under the chairmanship of Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf in which the government has presented a budget of Rs. 9,502 billion for the new financial year 2022-23.

One lakh laptops will be provided to students across the country in easy installments. A 15% increase in the salaries of government employees has been approved.

GDP growth rate

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said that in the new budget, the GDP growth rate has been kept at 5%. Next fiscal year inflation will be reduced to 11.5% while the overall deficit will be reduced to 4.9%.

Subsidies

Rs 1515 billion will be spent on subsidies out of which targeted subsidies have been set at Rs 699 billion. Sugar and flour are subsidized every month for which Rs. 12 billion has been allocated.

Income tax

In the new financial year, the income tax limit for the salaried class has been raised to Rs. 12 lakhs. In this way those employees who receive less than 1 lac salary wont be paying tax.

Stipend included

The finance minister Miftah Ismail said that in the new budget, a stipend of Rs 2,000 for those earning less than Rs 40,000 has been included in the budget.

Benazir Income Support Program

The Federal Minister for Finance Miftah Ismail said that the amount of Benazir Income Support Program has been increased while Benazir Development Program will be extended to all districts. Rs 364 billion has been allocated for Benazir Income Support Program.

Debt repayment

The finance minister said that Rs 3,144 billion would be spent on repaying interest on loans which Pakistan has taken from IMF and other international institutions.

Revenue

During the next financial year, the revenue target of FBR will be Rs. 7,004 billion as against Rs. 6,000 billion last year. In the new financial year, the federal government will have net revenue of Rs 4,904 billion while non-tax revenue will be Rs 2,000 billion.

Defense budget

In the new financial year 2022-23, Rs. 1523 billion has been allocated for national defense while Rs. 550 billion has been allocated for civil administration.

Entertainment industry

During his speech, Muftah Ismail said that the film has been given industry status, filmmakers are being given tax exemption for 5 years. Muftah Ismail says cinema producers are being exempted from income tax, National Film Studio is being set up. The Finance Minister said that 5 years tax exemption would be given on import of machinery for films and dramas.