The Total Outlay of the Budget 2015-16 Is Rs.4,451.3 Billion

Eco401's GDB

Solution:
The government on Friday presented budget for the fiscal year 2015-16 with a total outlay of Rs. 4451 billion. Total resources - tax revenue, non-tax revenue, other income and loans - have been estimated at Rs. 4168 billion. Estimated current expenditure is Rs. 3128 billion, and despite imposing new taxes to the tune of Rs. 253 billion, there will still be fiscal deficit of 1328 billion, which is 4.3 per cent of the GDP. While placing the budgetary proposals before the National Assembly, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said the government considers tax increase a pre-condition for the economic growth, but he maintained that the burden of changes would not fall on the poor, which is stated by every finance minister. He said exemptions worth Rs 120 billion given under different SROs vis-a-vis customs, sales tax and income tax are being withdrawn.

There is a package of incentives for construction sector; bricks and crush is being exempted from sales tax for three years so as to bring down the cost of construction. The target for GDP growth rate for the next fiscal year has been kept at 5.5%, which would be taken to 7% by 2017-18. Inflation would be kept to single digit, investment-to-GDP ratio at 21%, fiscal deficit 3.5% and tax-to-GDP ratio at 13%. The minister announced a PSDP amounting to over Rs. 1513 billion, out of which Rs. 700 billion has been earmarked for the development projects to be carried out by the federal government, while Rs 814 billion will be disbursed among the federating units for their development programmes. It is hoped that unlike in the past the provinces would utilize those funds so that the people could benefit from development.
Finance Minister announced 7.5% increase in the salaries of federal government employees besides merger of two previous ad-hoc relief allowances into the pay scales. Medical allowance has been increased by 25% and minimum wages have been increased from Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 13,000 for the labour class. Government servants in general have rejected this increase, as there is no guarantee that oil price in the international market will not increase, and general price index will remain the same. In fact, the prices of flour, edible oil, ghee, vegetables have not shown a downward trend, and as once the prices increase they never come back to the previous level. The government in its wisdom views increases in salaries and pension reasonable because of decline in inflation. But the prices of essential and increase in gas and electricity tariff as dictated by the IMF will make lives of the people more difficult.
Tax on agriculture has not been imposed on landed aristocracy this year as well. In fact, ruling and opposition parties\' members gang up against the imposition of tax on agricultural land and vow not to pay this tax. Unfortunately, Pakistan has overwhelmingly remained a feudal society where 70 per cent of our people are virtually in the clutches of jagirdars, vederas, pirs and sardars, who still wield enormous power. It should be noted that agriculture sector contributes about 24 per cent to Gross Domestic Product but has been contributing to the exchequer from 1 percent to 5 per cent tax, yet landed gentry resists imposition of tax on agriculture. Having that said, the budget 2015-16 is a traditional budget, which gives concessions to the rich and no relief to the poor. It reflects continuation of the policy and the concept that with industrialization a lot of money will be generated at the top, and there will be trickle-down effect, which would benefit the poor.

The total outlay of the budget 2015-16 is Rs.4,451.3 billion.

The size of the outlay is 3.5 percent higher than the size the budget estimates of 2014-15.

The resource availability during 2015-16 has been estimated at Rs.4,168.3 billion against Rs.4,073.8 billion in the budget estimates of 2014-15.

The net revenue receipts of 2015-16 have been estimated at Rs.2,463.4 billion, indicating an increase of 10.7 percent over the budget estimates of 2014-15.

The provincial share in federal taxes is estimated at 1,849.4 billion during 2015-16, which is 7.5 percent higher than the budget estimates for 2014-15.

The net capital receipts for 2015-16 have been estimated Rs.606.3 billion against the budget estimates of Rs.690.7 billion in 2014-15 a decline of 12.2 percent.

The external receipts in 2015-16 are estimated at Rs.751.5 billion which shows an increase of 12.2 percent.

The overall expenditures during 2015-16 has been estimated 4,451.3 billion, out of which the current expenditure is Rs.3,482.2 billion and development expenditure is Rs.969 billion.

The share of current and development expenditure respectively in total budgetary outlay for 2015-16 is 78.2 percent and 21.8 percent.

The expenditure on general public service is estimated at Rs.2,446.6 billion which is 70.3 percent of the current expenditure and

The other development expenditure outside PSDP for 2015-16 has been estimated at Rs.164.4 billion. (APP)