National Assembly session underway, mini-budget to be presented

September 18, 2018 (MLN):  A National Assembly session is underway under the chairmanship of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, where the government is expected to present its first ‘mini budget’, which has already been approved by the Federal Cabinet.

According to sources, a Supplementary Finance (amended) bill was approved by the Cabinet, today on Tuesday which aims to reduce the fiscal deficit of the country to 5.1 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 6.6 percent previously.

To do so, the mini-budget is expected to cut down on development expenditures while raising the taxes. As per sources, the Federal Cabinet has approved slashing the Public Sector Development Budget (PSDP) by Rs 305 billion, to bring the new allocations for PSDP down to Rs 725 billion from the Rs 1,030 billion in allocations approved by the prior government.

With respect to taxes, the budget is likely to raise taxes on non-filers on banking transactions, increase duty on customs and impose regulatory duties on hundreds of products.

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