The salient features of 2017-18 budget are as follows
- Budget outlay is Rs4.75 trillion
- Rs 1.001trillion has been set for development expenditure
- Minimum wage has been increased from 14,000 to 15,000
- Total tax revenue target for the upcoming year is Rs4.33trillion, out which FBR is directed to collect Rs4.01trillion.
- Tax breaks for Agriculture, Textile and IT sectors
- Rs 121billion allotted for 5.5 million under BISP
Industrial
- Schemes of zero rates to prolonged for textiles and leather sectors
- Cotton hedge trading to be introduced to promote textiles, Brand Development Fund to be created
- Business to Business, Business to Customer communication to be fastened by launching an Online Portal for textile trading
Taxes
- Taxes target to raise them to 15% of the GDP
- Corporate Sector to witness a decrease of rates form 35% to 30%
- Islamic Banking institutions to be taxed on similar levels as Commercial banks
- Commercial import of clothing to be taxed at 6pc
- taxes on car registrations have been cut on lowest three categories
Financial Sector
- 8billion allocated for loans to low income individuals by Microfinance Institutions
- Withholding taxes on branchless banking to be eliminated
- Banking transactions to continue incurring withholding tax
Energy Infrastructure Development
- A total sum of Rs 401billion to be allocated for energy projects
- Dasu Hydel – Rs 54billion
- 2 LNG Projects – Rs 70billion
- Diamer Bhasha – Rs 21billion
- Neelum Jhelum – Rs 19billion
- Tarbela IV – Rs 16.4billion
- Jamshoro plant – Rs 16.2billion
Roads and Highways
- Rs 320billion to be allocated to Roads and highways (NHA)
Infrastructure
- Pakistan Development Fund to be set up
- Overseas Pakistanis to be incentivized to invest in Infrastructure of Pakistan
Agriculture Sector
- Rs1.001trillion worth of loans to be given out in the upcoming year
- Fertilizer subsidized
- Prices of Urea bags to be lowered to Rs1400
- SBP to digitize land record management systems to help loan facilitation
- Tube wells will receive cheap electricity with the help of subsidies.
- Agriculture set to receive loans at 9.9% from 1st July, 2017
- Custom duty and sales tax to be abolished on imports of Agriculture sector
- A target of 9.9% growth for agriculture has been set for the next year
Posted on: 2017-05-26T20:40:00+05:00