Budget FY18 – Salient Features

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 1^st 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