The volume of the federal development budget is likely to be set at Rs700 billion and a sum of Rs1.58 trillion is expected to be allocated for defence. During the first half of previous fiscal year, the federal budget deficit had been slightly lower than Rs1.4 trillion. The annual federal budget deficit target was Rs4 trillion for the current fiscal year. The PTI-led government had taken a net Rs1.02 trillion in foreign loans to finance the federal deficit. Current expenditures were equal to 92% of the total federal government expenditures and over 38% of them were spent only on paying interest on loans.

Source: The Express Tribune May 29, 2022 22:39 UTC