Although this news printed on the front page of the newspaper may seem insignificant or funny to many people that the number of mosquitoes in the country has increased and more than one lakh has been recorded in one year, but I am thinking of it as a joke instead. A large part of the country’s population is already living below the poverty line, but what is this class that has been forced to leave motorcycles, pickaxes and drive carts? It has been reported in the report that during the current year, the number of donkeys in the country has increased to 58 lakhs. In the survey released for the financial year 2022-23, it has been reported that the number of donkeys increased by 1 lakh during one year, after which the total number of donkeys increased to 58 lakh. Even in rural areas, donkeys are used for many tasks, from pulling carts to carrying weight, but the question is that the world is moving towards development, but why should our steps go back to the past? are!
Well, they are the main group, but if we mention other “groups” of the country, the matter will go far, so we come to the new year budget presented by the federal government.
Regarding the budget presented by the Federal Minister of Finance Ishaq Dar for the financial year 2023-24, the Federal Minister of Finance has claimed that no new tax has been imposed in the budget, but the reality is the opposite. In fact, the finance minister himself admitted that taxes have been imposed on Greek medicine and second-hand clothes, among other things. In the presented budget, the share of the total income of the federation has been set at one padam 44 crore 60 rupees, in which a deficit of 7 thousand 500 billion rupees has been shown. This deficit is also a record in the history of Pakistan. In the budget, the target of FBR surplus is 92 billion rupees, non-tax income is 29 billion 63 billion rupees. In the budget, one padam 33 crore 20 billion rupees have been reserved for ongoing expenses, while 1140 billion rupees have been reserved for development expenses. In the budget, 35% ad hoc allowance was increased in the salaries of the employees of the first grade to 16th grade, while the salaries of the employees above the 17th grade were increased by 30%. The pension has also been increased by 17%.
The best thing that has happened in this budget is that the minimum salary of the workers has been increased to 32 thousand rupees, which will increase the minimum wage of the worker by one thousand rupees. It should be remembered that when the Minister of Labor Saeed Ghani of Sindh had fixed the minimum wage of 25,000, then the Supreme Court decided to reduce the wage on the demand of the mill owners. But they kept on demanding from the federal government that instead of reducing the salary of workers from Rs.50,000 to Rs.50,000. I believe that after making such a demand, the case of the workers has been taken care of and the federal government has also increased the salaries to some extent and paved the way towards the real wages of the workers.
The shocking news about this budget is that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has admitted with the disclosure that the budget for the next fiscal year 2023-24 has been prepared according to all the conditions of the IMF. In other words, this budget is not made by Pakistan, but by the IMF itself, which has no demand that has not been approved in this budget.
After such a revelation by the Prime Minister of the country, it can be easily understood that this budget is a people-friendly or an enemy of the people? In other words, what kind of relief will there be for the people in the budget created by the IMF, because the IMF is not a public institution, rather, the IMF is a famous institution that collects wealth by sucking the blood of the poor people of the poor countries of the world. is the. In his address to the Cabinet, the Prime Minister said that all the conditions of the International Financial Institution have been met. It is hoped that the loan agreement will be signed this month. The people of Pakistan are only interested in two or four things in the budget speech, one is the increase in salary and pension and the other is the exemption of taxes for the price of some basic commodities. But it should be seen that the budget is a game of numbers without understanding the matter can never be understood in depth. Therefore, it is very important to understand the figures of the proposed budget for the next year.
From this budget presented by the PDM government, it seems that the government has failed to achieve the 90% target as the finance minister himself admitted that it was only 0.2% as against 6% of GDP. Yes, in order to estimate the development of any country in the whole world, it is understood where the country is going by looking at its GDP growth rate.
However, in the budget, 42 billion rupees have been set aside for general elections, from which at least it seems that the government is in the mood to hold general elections, but the country’s conditions do not indicate that general elections can be held anytime. Before presenting the budget, the talks made during the press conference by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, State Minister of Finance Ayesha Ghos Pasha and others are of great importance, in which they said that the economic growth of the financial year ending 2022-23 The performance-based National Economic Survey report has been released, which states that the economic growth was 0.29 percent against the target of 6.1 percent during the financial year 2022-23. The growth of the agricultural sector was 1.55 percent. Last year, the agricultural sector The growth was 4.27%, the growth of the industrial sector was 2.94%, which was 6.83% last year, the growth of the services sector was 0.86%, confirming the decrease in per capita income in Pakistan, it is reported that the per capita income is 1568 dollars, last year’s per capita income was 1765 dollars, between July and April, there was a 13% decrease in remittances, a total of 22.7 billion dollars were sent by Pakistanis from abroad, last year, 26.1 billion dollars were received in that period. Imports decreased by 29.2% during the 11 months of the financial year, after which the imports decreased to 51.2 billion dollars. During the 11 months of last year, the imports were 72.3 billion dollars. Reached 25.4 billion dollars, the export of Pakistani goods last year was 28.9 billion dollars, the target was set to reduce the inflation rate to 11.5 percent during the ending fiscal year, but inflation increased to 29.2 percent, ending fiscal year. Fiscal deficit was 4.6 percent of GDP during the 10 months of 2018. Fiscal deficit was 4.9 percent in the same period last year. Current account deficit decreased by 76 percent. From July to May 2023, FBR tax collections increased by 16.1 percent. A total of 6210 billion tax collections were received. From July to May, the trade deficit decreased by 40.4% to 25.8 billion dollars. Direct foreign investment was 1.17 billion dollars after a 23.2% decrease. The growth of the manufacturing sector was 3.91%. The growth of this sector was 10.86%, the growth of the construction sector was 5.53%, the growth of sub-sectors of industries including electricity, gas, water supply was 6%, the growth of wholesale and retail trade was negative 4.46%, the total investment There was an increase of 10.2%, while last year there was an increase of 29.1% in the total investment.
The government understands that due to the current situation and the drama of the IMF, the dollar has become more expensive, but the government does not say who are the mortgage holders of the country with the IMF. In fact, all the problems are caused by the depreciation of the rupee, the rupee increases the inflation, but the exports do not increase. The government wants people not to save money in dollars and gold, but the government does not give any guarantee to the people to prevent the depreciation of the rupee. Since this country came into existence, there is no doubt that even now the country is going through difficult times, Pakistan has fallen from the 24th economy to the 47th economy in the world.
The government officially believes that it has already met all the steps and demands required under the IMF review, so there is no risk of the country defaulting. The government claims that there was an increase of 330 billion in the monthly revolving credit during the previous government’s period, this increase was 129 billion during our period, the previous government increased the amount of revolving debt to 2467 billion, in the previous government it was 25 thousand billion. The debt was increased to 49 thousand billion, the increase in the policy rate also increased the debt by 7 thousand billion, the promises made with the IMF were broken and the last straw was thrown in the country’s economy. There was a loss of 30 billion dollars. According to the Bloomberg report, the real value of the dollar in Pakistan should be 244 rupees. In Pakistan, the dollar has been artificially increased by 40 to 45 rupees.
Budget for the next financial year 2023-24 In the budget speech presented in the National Assembly on Friday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar estimated the total budget of the next financial year at 14500 billion. FBR has been proposed to set the target of tax collections at 9200 billion while the target of non-tax revenue is 2800 billion. 7300 billion for the payment of loans and interest in the next year’s budget, 1300 billion for various subsidies, 1150 billion for the development budget, 1800 billion for defense, 90 billion for the schemes of elected representatives, 80 billion for the Prime Minister’s schemes in the budget. It was announced to keep 650 billion for ongoing expenses of various ministries and 700 billion for pension. Along with the announcement of transferring 5244 billion to the provinces in the budget, it was also said that the budget deficit is more than 1000 billion. In the budget of the next financial year, the budget deficit is expected to be 6.4% of the GDP. It has also been heard that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to reduce the target of tax collection from Rs. The target has been set at 9200 billion rupees. It has been heard that to avoid unnecessary criticism, a tax target of 1600 billion rupees will be set in the annual budget, but taxes of 510 billion rupees have already been paid in the mini budget. The original objectives will be met. Experts say that new taxes of 200 to 500 billion rupees will be imposed through the finance bill. In total, FBR will collect 1900 billion increase in tax collection in the next fiscal year compared to the current fiscal year. will be More than 30% tax on mutual funds and real investment trusts was decided for non-filers, withholding tax on imported luxury goods was also increased in the budget, withholding tax for non-filers in the property sector was decided to be doubled. is the. According to the finance bill, the withholding tax on the purchase and sale of prize bonds for non-filers will be increased, thus the original targets will be met through the second mini-budget after the budget, which is said to be the purchase and sale of plots in the property sector. Withholding tax will be double for non-filers, in the budget it has been decided to double the rate of withholding tax for non-filers compared to filers. One bomb will not fall, but there is a possibility of continuous bombing. In order to avoid such a situation, we can only pray because the state of domestic politics is in front of us.
TIG rebel leader and industrialist Jahangir Tareen has announced the formation of his new party called the Stability Pakistan Party. Jahangir has criticized Imran Khan that we worked tirelessly to make PTI stronger, we did not do all that to attack government buildings. He has claimed that other people will join our party in the future. Among them are people with vote banks, we will give our party program in the coming days and also participate in the elections.
I believe that the powerful hands who made IGI, MQM, Q-League, Nawaz-League, PTI and other such parties with their own hands can bring power to Jahangir Tareen, but the question is that the budget scenario. Who will make a stable Pakistan in which the parliament, establishment and the judiciary are on the same page, a country in which the budget is not based on the terms of the IMF but based on the needs of the country’s people?
Who will build a country in which instead of increasing the number of donkeys, opportunities for human development will increase, who will build a country in which people will get peace along with bread.
