Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Monday approved the ‘Charged Expenditure’ worth Rs 27.886 trillion included in Demands for Grants and Appropriations related to different ‘services and purposes’ for the financial year ending on June 30, 2023 after a thorough discussion in the House.

Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was in the chair.

The House okayed Rs10 million for Pakistan Post Office Department, Rs3.458 billion for Superannuation Allowances and Pensions, Rs22 billion for Grants, Subsidies and Miscellaneous Expenditure, Rs 50 million for Foreign Missions, Rs310.2 million for Law and Justice Division, Rs 2.707 billion for the National Assembly, Rs 2.348 billion for the Senate, Rs 296.876 billion for External Development Loans and Advance by the Federal Government,  Rs 411 million for Household and Allowances of the President (Public), Rs 645 million for Staff, Household and Allowances of the President (Personal), Rs 510.971 billion for Servicing of Foreign Debt, Rs 3.792 trillion for Foreign Loans Repayment, Rs 142.771 billion for Repayment of Short Term Foreign Credits, Rs 6.095 billion for Audit, Rs 3.439 trillion for Servicing of Domestic Debt, Rs 19.654 trillion for Repayment of Domestic Debt, Rs3.091 billion for the Supreme Court, Rs 1.122 billion for Islamabad High Court, Rs 6.289 billion for Election Commission of Pakistan, Rs 100 million for Federal Ombudsman Secretariat for Protection against Harassment of Women at work place, Rs 943 million for the Wafaqi Mohtasib and Rs 306 million for the Federal Tax Ombudsman.

Participating in the discussion, Wajiha Qamar of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) expressed concern over the budgetary proposals and stressed the need for reducing the country’s imports and increasing the exports to strengthen the national economy.

Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan (MMAP) stressed increasing the budgetary allocation and authority of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and asked to avoid unnecessary spending on other heads.

Syeed Hussain Tariq of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Javeria Zafar Aheer of PTI, Osama Qadri of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQMP) and Ramesh Kumar Vankwani of PTI also spoke and called upon the government to adopt more austerity measures to reduce expenses.

Winding up the debate, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha said around 98 per cent of the charged expenses related to debt and debt servicing.

She said the government was introducing structural reforms in the country’s finance and revenue system to reduce the budget deficit.

She said the key structural reforms included measures to increase tax revenues, reduce current expenditures, compress imports, and boost exports of the country.

“Our focus and foremost priority are to control the budget deficit”, she said, adding that debt servicing was also a priority of the government and “we are looking at it.”