ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet is going to approve the budget of around Rs4,454 billion for the fiscal year 2016-17.
The special meeting of the federal cabinet will be held here around 6:30pm today and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will chair the meeting from the High Commission of Pakistan, London, through video link.
After approval of the development outlay and macroeconomic framework for the fiscal 2016-17 by the National Economic Council, the final budget of Rs4,454 billion will be presented for the approval of the federal cabinet.
The cabinet will approve a development outlay of Rs1.675 trillion earmarked for the federal PSDP and provincial annual development plan (ADP) for the fiscal 2016-17.
The cabinet will also discuss the defence budget of around Rs 850 billion to 900 billion. Similarly Rs 1.5 trillion is being directed towards the debt serving and the federal cabinet is likely to approve it.
A proposal of enhancement the salary and pension by 7 to 10 percent will also be discussed in the cabinet meeting. Similarly the federal cabinet will also approve a proposal of Rs 245 billion allocation for the pensions.
The cabinet is also likely to approve the allocation of Rs 107 billion for Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in the upcoming budget.
The cabinet will ponder a proposal of the budget deficit of around 3.8 percent of GDP and a subsidy of Rs 169 billion.
The other proposal to be approved, as part of the federal budget, by the cabinet meeting include the tax to-GDP ratio which has been projected at 12.5 percent in the next fiscal year.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collection target will be around Rs 3,606 billion and non-tax collection target is Rs 950 billion. The foreign currency reserves have been estimated to increase to $23.6 billion by the end of next fiscal year.
