The Budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 is set to be presented in the National Assembly on 12th June 2024, Wednesday. A meeting of the chief whips of all the political parties in Parliament discussed the schedule for the upcoming budget session.
Pakistan Budget 2024-25 Date
The federal government would present the annual budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 on 12th June 2024. The session is expected to take a break from 13 June to 19 June according to the press release. It will resume on 20 June with dates from 20 June to 24 June allocated for the general discussion on the budget.
The debut on cut motions is scheduled for 26 June and 27 while 28 June is designated for the discussion and approval of the Finance Bill. The current session of the National Assembly is expected to continue until 29 June 2024.
The Pakistan government is likely to present the budget with the outlay around Rs.18 trillion for the financial year 2024-25. Pakistan’s Financial year runs from July to June and its budget for fiscal year 2025, the first by Sharif new government, has to be presented before the 30 June.
Pakistan Budget 2024-25 Expectations
The Annual Plan Coordination Committee on Friday cleared a National Development Plan for 2024-25 including the federal public sector development program of Rs. 1.221 tr, to accelerate economic growth to 3.6% from 2.38% in the outgoing 2024.
Compared to other countries Pakistan has a relatively low tax to GDP ratio. The incidence of the direct tax will be enhanced and of indirect tax be reduced and the reduction in indirect tax rates will give a boost to every sector of the economy, it will increase savings that would trigger investment and support a higher economic activity.
The focus in the Federal Budget for 2024-25 to be proposed in the next few days, should be on income generation and cutting down expenditures to reduce budget deficits, this is possible through fine policies like broadcasting the tax base without imposing any new tax or increasing the rate of the existing taxes and improving the tax to GDP ratio.
If the tax to GDP ratio is increased to at least 15% then it is expected to allocate a major portion of FDR resources towards broadening the tax base. By reducing expenditure through fine management and austerity measures Pakistan could expect to achieve PKR 876 billion in potential savings in the short term.
Pakistan Budget 2024-25 Session Plan
The announcement regarding the formation of the interim committees came after the speaker presided over a consultative meeting of the parliamentary leaders to discuss the schedule of the Pakistan budget session.
According to the official announcement the members of the treasury and the opposition members agreed that soon after presentation of the budget the NA would go on a week long recess due to Eid Azha.
A general debate on the budget would start on 20 June which will continue till the 24 June. The members will take part in the debate and vote on cut motions on 26 June and 27 June. The announcement says that the plan is not yet final because there can be changes in it depending on situations.
According to the sources, the critical National Economic Council meeting is essentially reviewing the current year’s situation and development programme and approving the next year’s economic and development agenda.
Pakistan Budget 2024-25 Proposal to Increase Salaries
In the lead up to the announcement of the federal budget 2024-25 the Minister of Finance has revealed an initial proposal to increase salaries for the government employees:
- Sources within the minister suggest a potential salary hike of 15% to 20% for the federal employees.
- One of the key proposals is an increase in the monetization policy for bureaucrats, for the officers up to grade 20 an increase from Rs. 65,000 to Rs. 105,000 has been proposed.
- For the grade 21 officers the monetization is proposed to increase from Rs. 75,000 to Rs. 120,000.
- Grade 22 officers expected to see their monetization increase from Rs. 95,000 to Rs. 155,000.
- Additionally demands for a 200% increase in medical and conveyance allowance for employees in grade 1 to 16.
- For 17 to 18 grades officers receive Rs. 5,000 as conveyance allowance and a similar 200% increase is proposed to them as well.
What about the relief for federal pensioners?