Holes in the budget
Tax hole: The budget shows ‘Tax Revenue (FBR) of Rs5,829 billion’. On May 29, the FBR told us that it has collected Rs4,143 billion in 11 months. That means the…
Mr Tarin’s budget
Presentation of the upcoming fiscal year’s budget with much fanfare is an established political ritual in Pakistan. Even during martial law periods, finance ministers would give a long speech on…
Skimming through Budget 2021-22
In the given circumstances, Budget 2021-22 presented yesterday by Shaukat Tarin could not have been better. Let me explain why: the art of preparing a budget in Pakistan is balancing…
Budgeting on hope
THERE are two problems when discussing the budget and the attendant Economic Survey this year. First is that there is not much of a budget to discuss. At the heart…
An ordinary budget
Extraordinary situations demand extraordinary responses. We are facing an extraordinary situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the current economic crisis and the locust attacks. The government has to fight on…
The science of a budget
By virtue of parliament’s vote, the budget becomes a legal document and cannot be treated as merely an statement of intentions. However, Pakistan’s successive governments have presented budgets on unrealistic…
In defence of BISP
With the recent steps taken by the government regarding the Benazir Income Support Programme, there are fears that the 120 billion rupees annual allocation is considered an avoidable drain of…
Budgeting democracy
Unlimited resources need a budget not. Conventional wisdom understands budgeting as a process for curtailing expenditure to match available limited resources. And for most rational persons, including artificial persons, available…
Budget widgets
Budget is a ritual that supersedes the mother of all laws, the Constitution. We have had budgets when we didn't have a Constitution, or abrogated or suspended. Even the man…
Budget destined for revision
The budget 2018-19's applicability due from 1 July 2018 is likely to be even shorter than the tenure of the few hours' old Finance Minister Miftah Ismail who presented the…
