Daily Times

As was expected, the federal budget for the financial year 2021-22 sailed smoothly through the National Assembly. The finance bill was passed on June 29 while budgetary measures have already got into action throughout the country.

This was the PTI-led coalition government’s third budget, which was presented by its fourth finance minister, Shaukat Tarin–the successor to Asad Omer, Dr Hafeez Shaikh and Hammad Azhar. His full name, which is not known to many around, is Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin and he has previously also shouldered the heavy responsibility as the finance minister in different governments. The incumbent coalition government will complete its three years in August.

The fact is that the federal government, headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, has been facing numerous economic challenges besides other internal and external issues and problems for almost three years. Most of the time, they have taken bold and difficult decisions and have successfully progressed from recovery to stabilisation of the national economy to sustainable growth.

The federal government has fixed a number of priorities to be pursued during the just-concluded financial year

In order to ensure its march onwards, from stability to growth despite the prevalence of the pandemic, the federal government has fixed a number of priorities to be pursued during the financial year 2021-22. These priorities include inclusive and sustainable economic growth; pro-poor initiatives and social safety net through the Ehsaas Programmes’ vertical and horizontal expansion; reduction in inflation and price hike control and monitoring; increased development spending for ensuring maximum job opportunities creation; initiatives of the Prime Minister including Kamyab Jawan and Kissan Programmes; impact mitigation of COVID-10 and continuation of the stimulus package; circular debt financing and power sector subsidies; revenue mobilization without new taxes; continuing support of the housing sector and the construction industry through Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme sand Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) support programme; facilitating expatriates remittances and savings through Roshan Digital Account, and continuing pursuing Pakistan Remittances initiatives and other schemes.

As per the information available from official sources concerned and relevant budget documents (avoiding facts and figures to the maximum extent), there are many objectives underlying the new federal budget. These include a) striking a balance between fiscal deficits due to COVID-19 and boosting growth of the national economy; b) striking and maintaining primary balance at a sustainable level; c) protection of social spending under the Ehsaas Programme to continuing supporting vulnerable segments of the society; d) resource mobilisation with required changes in tax structure; e) successful continuation of the ongoing International Monetary Programme (IMF); f) carrying forward the Stimulus Package; g) keeping the development budget at an adequately appropriate level to stimulate sustainable economic growth coupled with policy support; h) funding of crucial housing initiatives including Naya Pakistan Housing project to boost the construction sector; i) adequate funding for the special areas i.e. erstwhile FATA, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan for ensuring their accelerated development; j) continuation of special initiatives of the Prime Minister like Kamyab Jawan, Sehat Card, Billion Tree Tsunami etc; k) austerity and control of non-productive expenditure; l) rationalization of subsidy regime to provide targeted subsidy to the deserving segments of the society, and m) revising the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award while persuading the provinces to fulfill their funding commitments made at the time of merger of the erstwhile FATA in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The writer is a freelance columnist and retired deputy controller of Radio Pakistan (Islamabad). He can be reached at zahidriffat@gmail.com.