SLAMABAD: Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh presented Rs 2.767 trillion Budget for FY 2011-12 envisaging a deficit of 850 billion (4% of GDP) in the backdrop of vociferous slogans chanted by the members of opposition parties here on Friday.
The Finance Minister delivered the budget speech in Urdu during a special budget session of the National Assembly to present the 4th Federal Budget of the incumbent PPP-led government for Fiscal Year 2011-12.
At the conclusion of the speech women MNAs from the opposition benches hurled bangles at the Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani while Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Ahsan Iqbal presented ‘Roti’ (bread) to the PM.
Dr. Hafeez Shaikah in his speech announced that salaries of government employees are being raised by 15% which, he added, were increased by 50 percent in the previous year.
The conveyance allowance of the government employees of Grade 1-15 was also raised by 25%
Dr. Shaikh said the General Sales Tax was being slashed from 17% to 16%; excise duty on soft drinks from 12% to 6%; limit of exempted income raised from Rs300,000 to 350,000; 15 out of 40 items being exempted from Federal Excise Duty and; withholding tax on cash withdrawal reduced from 0.3% to 0.2%.
As soon as the Federal Finance Minister Dr. Hafeez Shaikh began his speech to present the budget, the members on the opposition benches started chanting slogans against the government. The assembly hall resounded with "US slavery unacceptable”, “Federal Budget unacceptable" and others such slogans, making it difficult to hear the soft sounding Minister who was wearing ear-phones to concentrate on his speech.
He paid tributes to the President Asif Ali Zardari, who he said handed over his powers to the Parliament and congratulated Prime Minister Yusuf Raza and Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for ‘upholding the supremacy of the democratic norms in the parliament’.
The foreign exchange reserves, he said, stood at as low as 6 billion dollars when the incumbent government took over in 2008. The foreign reserves are now touching a record level at 17.3 billion dollars.
He said adoption of a strict monetary policy helped control sky-rocketing inflation besides supporting the energy sector.
Export rose by 26 % while remittances surged to a record level of 12 bn dollars during the current fiscal.
Special relief was provided in terms of funds and other facilities to flood affectees and peasants following the devastating floods in 2010.
The next year’s budget envisages resource availability at Rs. 2.463 trillion against Rs. 2.256 trllion in the budget estimates of the outgoing fiscal year.
Net revenue receipts for 2011-12 have been estimated at Rs. 1529 billion indicating an increase of 11 percent over the budget estimates of fiscal year 2010-11.
The provincial share in federal revenue receipts is estimated at Rs. 1203 billion during 2011-12 which is 16.4 per cent higher than the budget estimates for 2010-11.
The capital receipts (net) for 2011-12 have been estimated at Rs. 396 billion against the budget estimates of Rs. 325 billion in 2010-11 indicating an increase of 11 per cent.
The external receipts in 2011-12 are estimated at Rs. 414 billion. This shows an increase of 7.1 per cent over the budget estimates for 2010-11.
The overall expenditure during 2011-12 has been estimated at Rs. 2767 billion of which the current expenditure is Rs. 2315 billion and development expenditure at Rs. 452 billion. Current expenditure shows increase of less than one per cent over the revised estimates of 2010-11, while development expenditure will increase by 64.4 per cent in 2011-12 over the revised estimates of 2010-11.
The share of current expenditure in total budgetary outlay for 2011-12 is 83.7 per cent as compared to 89 per cent in revised estimates for 2010-11.
The expenditure on General Public Services (inclusive of debt servicing transfer payments and superannuation allowance) is estimated at Rs. 1660 billion which is 71.1 per cent of the current expenditure.
The size of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2011-12 is Rs. 730 billion. While for Other Development Expenditure an amount of Rs. 97 billion has been allocated. The PSDP shows an increase of 58 per cent over the revised estimates of 2010-11.
The provinces have been allocated an amount of Rs. 430 billion for budget estimates 2011-12 in their PSDP as against Rs. 373 billion in 2010-11.
An amount of Rs.10 billion has been allocated to Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERA) in the PSDP 2011-12.