PESHAWAR: The federal budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 is not much different from the previous budgets endured by people, said a businessman adding, it would be followed by many mini-budgets.
Zahid Khan Shinwari, a known businessman and former president of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), while commenting on the federal budget presented in the National Assembly on June 11.
In the current financial year, he said that the tax revenue target of Rs5,500 billion was once reduced to Rs5,000 and then to Rs4,800 billion which even then couldn’t be achieved despite tall claims of historical revenue collection by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
“If we could collect only Rs4,300 billion in the current financial year then how an ambitious target of Rs5,800 billion could be achieved by collecting 24 percent more revenues,” he posed a question.
The businessman said the cursory glimpse on the budget draft for financial year 2021-22 clearly showed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s shift in policy from austerity to spending spree to push economic growth.
He said that the around 40 percent increase in the Public sector Development Programme (PSDP) was phenomenal and rather unprecedented along with a hike in all expenditures with various margins.
“The biggest question is the huge Rs3,900 billion budget deficit (which is also based on the assumption that Rs570 provincial surplus will be added back to make it Rs3400 billion), then why the Tabdeeli Sarkar couldn’t work on curtailing non-development expenditures by reducing and shrinking the overinflated but inefficient size of government ministries and departments,”Shinwari posed another question.
He said that many countries around the world had introduced the concept of smart government and that Pakistan should also slash the defence budget. He also called for rescheduling and restructuring debts with lenders to create breathing space.
“If we borrow Rs4,000 billion this year to bridge the gap between revenue and expenditures then how can we expect to reduce the burden of debt servicing, which has reached 80 percent of tax revenue i.e. Rs3,000 billion,” said the ex-president of SCCI, adding that as to how get out of this vicious cycle.