This week, You! takes a look at the annual budget of 2018-19 to find out how it benefits women, both in terms of managing household expenses as well as various other fields. Read on...
This week, You! takes a look at the annual budget of 2018-19 to find out how it benefits women, both in terms of managing household expenses as well as various other fields. Read on...
As the sitting government’s tenure is about to end, it has come up with a federal budget for the year 2018 - 2019 which has been termed as an attempt to woo voters in the upcoming elections. This budget offers a lot of relief and incentives to the masses amid criticism from the opposition parties that think it should be the prerogative of the new government formed after the general elections to announce the annual budget. There was also a demand that if the government was adamant to announce budget, it should be for the four months till the formation of the new government.
Anyhow, the PML-N government has announced federal budget for the whole year and taken certain decisions that it insists will benefit the masses, for example, the government has increased the threshold income for imposition of income tax as well as decreased its rate. This has given relief to the middle and low income groups as they will have more disposable income than before to spend and even save.
As per details, the people who earn up to Rs 1.2 million per year or Rs 0.1 million per month will be exempt from income tax. Earlier, this limit was Rs 0.4 million. Furthermore, tax will be levied at the rate of 5 per cent for income between Rs 0.2 million and Rs 0.4 million per month and 15 per cent for income above Rs 0.4 million per month.
Furthermore, there is a growing debate around the globe that the budgets announced by the governments shall be gender sensitive, especially in countries where women are comparatively at a disadvantageous position. While many countries have shown improvements in this regard, there are still a few where budgets are gender insensitive and it is assumed that both men and women are equally being benefitted from whatever is being offered.
Targeting women
In context of Pakistan, it is true that the women are directly affected by any change in household incomes because they are the ones who manage day to day expenses. It is a norm here that the male members of the family hand over an estimated amount to women who utilise it prudently to cover the weekly or monthly expenses of the house. So, at the household level, it is established that women will have more disposable income due to the savings on tax and the fact that new taxes are hardly imposed on commodities in this relief budget.
As the tax rates have been lowered, the salaried class has benefitted the most because it is the one whose tax is deducted at source. Many women who are employed as teachers, doctors, architects, lawyers, journalists, nurses etc will benefit from this reduction in tax rates and have more disposable incomes than before.
Tahira Ahmed, a school teacher with family members both in government service and private sector, has worked out her calculations and hopes she will be able to spend more on kitchen and transportation of her children. She focuses on these things because she thinks the expenses related to house rent, utility bills, school fees etc are not likely to increase significantly. If the government’s target is of keeping inflation rate at six per cent, the food prices will also hopefully remain stable. “It will be possible for me to send children to school or college in the car instead of public transport, which is inconvenient and not easily available. Still, there will be some space for saving for unforeseen expenses like in the case of health emergency,” she tells.
Those in government service or having family members doing a job, if living in joint family system, stand to gain a lot as the government has offered them several incentives. To mention a few, there is an upward revision in the salary and pension of government servants by 10 per cent and increase in the minimum limit of family pension from Rs 4,500 to Rs 7,500. The minimum pension has been raised from Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 according to the budget 2018-19. An amount of Rs 15,000 has been fixed as minimum for the pensioners over the age of 75 years. The house rent allowance for government servants has also been increased by 50 per cent.
As mentioned earlier, there is a need to shift towards gender sensitive budgeting and introducing positive discrimination in favour of women in Pakistan. Though this would take some time, there are some steps and budgetary measures that aim to directly benefit the womenfolk of the country. For example, Rs 125 billion has been proposed for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and Rs 10 billion for the Prime Minister’s Youth Scheme. Both these initiatives have women as their main beneficiaries.
Similarly, Rs 10 billion have been earmarked for a programme to end child stunting that cannot be done without engaging and benefitting the mothers. The Prime Minister’s Health Programme is also there which, according to the government claims, has helped around 3 million families in 41 districts access free of cost services in public and private hospitals. Obviously, a large number of beneficiaries are women.
The Economic Survey of Pakistan
While the budgets are about expenditures and receipts, these do not give details of how budgetary allocations will be used. For that purpose, one has to look at The Economic Survey of Pakistan for the preceding fiscal year at the time of announcement of the federal budget. So, the Economic Survey for the year 2017-2018 gives an insight on how the last year’s budget expenditures are made. It is relevant here because it gives general figures and details of several projects and programmes that will continue during the next year. Some women-specific information mentioned in the survey follows:
It is the most effective and formidable vehicle to support financial inclusion, particularly for women. More than 50 per cent of the investors of National Savings are women compared to the merely less than 4 per cent in the banking sector and average 25 per cent in South Asia.
It is a flagship social protection programme by the government to provide social assistance to women. BISP also gives interest free financial assistance to the female beneficiaries under their ‘Waseela-e-Haq’ (Micro-Finance) Programme to start their own business. Vocational and technical training of one month to a year’s duration, is provided to the female beneficiary or her nominee under the ‘Waseela-e-Rozgar’, the Economic Survey of Pakistan Programme (target is 150,000 beneficiaries) with Rs 6,000 monthly stipend for each trainee.
Also, ‘Waseela-e-Sehat’ (Life and Health Insurance) Programme subsidised health care for beneficiaries and life insurance to one million women; the premium is paid by the programme.
The scheme was launched in 1991 by PML-N government whereby the Government committed to pay the loans of widow borrowers from House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) up to the value of Rs 0.35 million. This scheme will continue in FY 2018-19 with increased limit of Rs 0.6 million. Appropriate budgetary provision is being made for this purpose.
In order to assist the poor on a sustainable basis by enabling them (especially women and youth) to realise their development potential and attain a higher level of social and economic well being, the government has launched a National Poverty Graduation Programme for BISP beneficiaries with an amount of more than Rs 9.5 billion (US$ 82.6 million). Under this programme, BISP beneficiaries who are willing to start their own businesses will be provided with a one-time cash grant of Rs 50,000 to start their own business and become productive members of society.
One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that these are mostly figures shared by the government and the qualitative aspect needs to be probed independently. It is also a fact that these are the provincial budgets that make allocations for women especially after the 18th amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan.
So far, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan have come up with their provincial budgets which are supplementary, four-month and full year budgets respectively. Punjab will continue with the schemes introduced last year such as the development programme for the establishment of violence against women centres (VAWCs) at divisional headquarters at the cost of Rs 500 million respectively.
Similarly, Rs 675 million are allocated to Punjab budget for women’s development. Of this amount, Rs 210 million are allocated to the Punjab Working Women Endowment Fund and Rs 100 million for the Punjab Commission on the Status for Women and for research and surveys pertaining to gender issues.
Sindh, on the other hand, has allocated Rs 426 million for execution of various schemes for social, economic, political and legal empowerment of women. Last but not least, Balochistan has earmarked Rs 88.3 billion for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) projects that include those specifically targeting women.
