The finance minister said that the government would focus on agriculture, productivity enhancement and exports promotion in the next budget. The domestic debt servicing will eat up nearly Rs3.5 trillion while another Rs511 billion will be given for foreign debt servicing. The Rs9.5 trillion size of the budget is higher by nearly Rs418 billion or 4.6% over this year’s revised budget of over Rs9 trillion. The Rs550 billion cost appears low due to increase in cost of utilities under the IMF programme. The net income of the federal government is expected to be Rs600 billion less than expenditure on defence and debt servicing.

Source: The Express Tribune June 11, 2022 11:10 UTC