ISLAMABAD   -    The coalition govern­ment is all set to pres­ent annual budget for next fiscal year 2023-24 today in the Parliament amid an effort to revive the much needed Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme, supporting agriculture, exports and IT sectors. Finance Min­ister Ishaq Dar would present the annual budget in parliament af­ter getting approval from the spe­cial federal cabinet meeting, which would be chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The federal govern­ment would consider different pro­posals regarding increasing salaries and pensions in the budget. Ministry of Finance would present different options in this regard.

Ishaq Dar on Thursday informed that the government would increase the salaries of civil servants and pen­sions keeping in view the higher infla­tion rate in the country.

The government has already shared the draft of the annual budget with the IMF. An official informed that the total outlay of the budget could be around Rs14500 billion with a deficit of 7.7 percent of the GDP. The government would likely to set the tax collection target of Rs9.2 trillion and non-tax col­lection target at Rs2.8 trillion. The de­fense budget could be around Rs1.8 trillion, subsidies Rs1.3 trillion and Rs430 billion for the Benzair Income Support Programme (BISP). The major part of the budget would be consumed by interest payments, which is project­ed at over Rs7 trillion.