ISLAMABAD  - The incumbent government has restricted budget deficit at 5.5 percent of the GDP (Rs 1388.72 billion) during previous financial year 2013-14 despite missing the annual tax collection target several times in a single year.
Pakistan's overall expenditures stood at Rs 5026.02 billion (19.8 percent of the GDP) as against the total revenue of Rs 3637.3 billion (14.3 percent of the GDP) leaving fiscal/budget deficit at Rs 1388.72 billion during last financial year, showed the official data of the Finance Ministry. The government has achieved its target of keeping budget deficit below six percent of the GDP as agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The government had kept the fiscal deficit target at 6.3 percent of the GDP (Rs 1590.72 billion) at the eve of budget 2013-14. However, later, the government had revised its target to 5.8 percent of the GDP in consultation of the IMF for extended fund facility worth of $6.64 billion.
The government had restricted the deficit mainly because of the provincial surplus of the four provinces and unexpected increase in the non-tax revenues of the country. The government had missed the tax collection target despite revising it several times. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had collected Rs 2266 billion during last fiscal year as against the target of Rs 2475 billion.
According to the break-up of the overall expenditures, the government had spent huge amount worth of Rs 1145.79 billion on repaying the interest on loans including foreign and domestic borrowing in FY2013. Similarly, it had released Rs 180.2 billion for Superannuation allowances and pension. Meanwhile, the defence sector had consumed Rs 623.09 billion. The government had further released Rs 86.24 billion for the public orders and safety affairs. Similarly, the health sector had received Rs 10.132 billion, recreation culture and religion sector got Rs 7.8 billion and education affairs and services received Rs 65.41 billion. Meanwhile, the total development expenditure remained at Rs 1135.92 billion wherein federal public sector development programme (PSDP) was Rs 434.93 billion, provincial PSDP Rs 430.52 billion and other development expenditures recorded at Rs 270.46 billion during last financial year.
Meanwhile, the overall revenue collection stood at Rs 3,637.3 billion wherein tax collection was Rs 2,564.509 billion and non-tax collection was Rs 1072.788 billion. The break-up of non-tax collection of Rs 1072.788 billion showed that profits of post office and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority was Rs 94.83 billion, markup of public sector entities was Rs 67 billion, profit of State Bank of Pakistan was Rs 326.19 billion, defence Rs 117.19 billion, citizenship, naturalisation and passport fee was Rs 18.97 billion, development surcharges on gas was Rs 38.53 billion, discount retained on crude oil was Rs 40.703 billion, Royalty on Oil/Gas was Rs 76.441 billion, windfall levy against crude oil was Rs 14.584 billion, gas infrastructure development cess was Rs 31.817 billion, foreign grants were Rs 12.308 billion and others Rs 100,533 billion.
According to figures, the four provincial governments recorded surplus budget of Rs 149.508 billion during the previous fiscal year, as provincial expenditures were recorded at Rs 1617.936 billion against their revenue of Rs 1767.444 billion.
According to the figures, the Punjab province recorded budget surplus of Rs 55.56 billion, as expenditure was recorded at Rs 748 billion against the revenue of Rs 803.56 billion during last financial year 2013-14. The Sindh province recorded budget surplus of Rs 41.43 billion during the last financial year. The expenditure of the Sindh province was recorded at Rs 449.121 billion as compared to the revenue of Rs 449.554 billion during period under review.
Meanwhile, the figures further revealed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province recorded budget surplus of Rs 43.018 billion, as expenditure was recorded at Rs 259.735 billion against the revenue of Rs 302.753 billion. The Balochistan province recorded budget surplus of Rs 9.49 billion. The expenditure of the Balochistan province was recorded at Rs 161.081 billion as compared to revenue of Rs 170.573 billion during period under review.