Islamabad: The Ministry of
Finance (MoF) recently announced its decision to halt the formulation of Budget
2020-21 due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country, a news source
reported.
As per the publication, the government intended to present the budget for the coming fiscal year either at the end of May or the beginning of June this year. However, these plans have been put on hold for now.
Earlier, the MoF had approved a medium-term budget strategy paper for three years from the federal cabinet. Under the strategy paper, the economic team had recommended PKR 300 billion for the Ehsaas Programme, PKR 1 trillion for pensions & civil government, and PKR 700 billion to PKR 900 billion for the Public Sector Development Programme. In addition, the team had also proposed a budget of PKR 1,250 billion to PKR 1,750 billion for defence expenses and 3.3 trillion for interest payments.
The economic team had further proposed PKR 270 billion for subsidies, PKR 1 trillion for grants, PKR 80 billion for disasters & crisis, and PKR 150 billion for the development of the newly merged districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
