The Ministry of Finance on Saturday released its calendar for the next fiscal year, wherein the budget for FY2021-22 would be presented during the first week of June.
According to media reports, the finance minister has announced that a meeting of the annual plan coordination committee will be held in April, while estimates on ongoing and development projects will be presented till March 15.
The budget for FY22 will be presented before the federal cabinet and Parliament during the first week of June, he added.
According to the ministry, budget strategy papers will be prepared in the second week of March, whereas budget particulars will be given a final shape in the last week of May.
Last year, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had presented a budget with a total outlay of Rs7.13 trillion, including major allocations of Rs25.5 billion for health, Rs83.3bn for education and Rs1.3tr for defence.
The budget, presented by federal minister Hammad Azhar, was dubbed “corona budget”, as it was presented during the corona crisis; no taxes were imposed by the government. The government at the time had called the budget “a relief for the masses” but major opposition parties, PPP and PML-N, termed it “people’s enemy budget”.
In the previous budget, the net revenue receipts were estimated at Rs3,699.5 billion, indicating an increase of 6.7pc over the budget estimates of 2019-20; provincial share in federal taxes was estimated at Rs 2,873.7 billion, which was 11.7pc lower than the budget estimates for 2019-20; net capital receipts were estimated at Rs1,463.2 billion against the budget estimates of Rs831.7 billion in 2019-20; external receipts in 2020-21 were estimated at Rs 2,222.9 billion, showing a decrease of 26.7pc over the budget estimates for 2019-20; while overall expenditure during 2020-21 has been estimated at Rs7,294.9 billion, out of which the current expenditure was Rs6,345 billion.
