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Islamabad (Manend News) Finance Minister Ishaq Dar Wednesday tabled the Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2023 — or the “mini-budget” — in the National Assembly and Senate as the government seeks to meet the preconditions for unlocking the $1.1 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.
Running against time to pacify the IMF for the revival of the bailout programme, the government had last night approved hiking the General Sales Tax GST rate from 17% to 18% and increasing the Federal Excise Duty (FED) on cigarettes in order to fetch an additional Rs115 billion out of Rs170 billion agreed to by Pakistan in line with the IMF conditions.
Through the “mini-budget”, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government aims to reduce the budget deficit and broaden its tax collection net — in order to meet the conditions laid forth by the Washington-based lender.
The National Assembly will not be sending the bill for further deliberations to the Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, while the Senate has referred the legislation to the relevant committee.
Courtesy TheNews