ISLAMABAD   - The government's spending on debt servicing exceeded expenditures on defence and development during first half (July-December) of the ongoing financial year (2013-2014).
The government spent huge amount of Rs 597.68 billion on debt servicing as against defence budget of Rs 295.28 billion and development budget of Rs 326.12 billion during first six months of the current fiscal year. According to details, the government spent Rs 559.28 billion on servicing of domestic debt, which is mostly taken to run the expenditures of the government. Meanwhile, the government spent Rs 38.4 billion on servicing of foreign debt.
However, the government has successfully restricted the budget deficit at Rs 540.13 billion (2.1 per cent of the GDP). The government's expenditures stood at Rs 2.22 trillion (8.6 per cent of the GDP) against revenue of Rs 1.68 trillion (6.5 percent of the GDP). The government has target to restrict the budget deficit at Rs 1.5 trillion (5.8 per cent of the GDP) during ongoing financial year.
According to the Finance Ministry report, Pakistan Fiscal Operations July-December 2013-14, the break-up of revenue collection of Rs 1.68 trillion revealed that government collected Rs 1172.007 billion as tax revenue and Rs 512.541 billion as non-tax revenue during the period under review. In non-tax revenue, the government has accumulated Rs 28.87 billion as development surcharge on gas, Rs 36.75 billion as royalty on oil/gas, Rs 5.913 billion as gas infrastructure development cess and Rs 67.636 billion as foreign grants.
The official figures further revealed that total expenditures stood at Rs 2.22 trillion. The expenditure on interest payment was recorded at Rs 597.68 billion, defence budget of Rs 295.28 billion, public orders and safety affairs cost Rs 38.75 billion and environmental protection cost Rs 349 million during the period under review. Meanwhile, the government spent Rs 4.83 billion on heath, Rs 3.53 billion on recreation, culture and religion, Rs 26.79 billion on education affairs and services and Rs 709 million on social protection during the first half of current financial year.
According to the figures, the development expenditures and net lending stood at Rs 326.15 billion. The break-up showed that government spent Rs 243.7 billion on development and net lending stood at Rs 82.68 billion. The government spent Rs 243.47 billion of development expenditures, federal public sector development programme (PSDP) expenditures recorded at Rs 118.618 billion, provincial PSDP at Rs 93.955 billion and other development expenditures at Rs 30.9 billion during July-December of the fiscal year 2013-14.
According to figures, the four provincial governments recorded surplus budget of Rs 168.111 billion, as provincial expenditures were recorded at Rs 266.769 billion against the revenue of Rs 800.06 billion during first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year. According to the figures, the Punjab province recorded budget surplus of Rs 67.24 billion during July-December period of the year 2013-14, as expenditures were recorded at Rs 295.716 billion against the revenue of Rs 349.603 billion. The Sindh province recorded budget surplus of Rs 55.83 billion during the first half of the ongoing financial year. The expenditures of the Sindh province was recorded at Rs 186.71 billion as compared to the revenue of Rs 230.696 billion during period under review.
Meanwhile, the figures further revealed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province recorded budget surplus of Rs 32.812 billion, as expenditures were recorded at Rs 99.726 billion against the revenue of Rs 132.538 billion. The Balochistan province recorded budget surplus of Rs 34.025 billion. The expenditure of the Balochistan province was recorded at Rs 53.199 billion as compared to revenue of Rs 87.224 billion during period under review.