ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry on Friday issued a detailed six-month report of the first half of the ongoing fiscal year 2019-20 showing an improvement in the revenue collection and expenditures incurred as compared to the same period of the past fiscal year. Ad
According to the details, the fiscal deficit remained at 2.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the first six months of the ongoing fiscal year as compared to 2.7 percent of the GDP in the same period of the previous year.
The loan and interest payments also witnessed a sharp increase with Rs 1282 billion payments made this year, showing a 46 percent increase from the previous year.
The defence and public sector expenditures also witnessed a considerable increase from the previous year as former’s expenditure witnessed a 10 percent increase and remained at Rs 529 billion while the latter’s spending stood at Rs 456 billion, showing an increase of 39 percent from the past year.
The report said that the public sector expenditures by the federal government and provinces remained at Rs 237 billion and Rs 219 billion respectively in the ongoing year as compared to Rs 160 billion and Rs 168 billion during the previous year respectively.
The tax collection during the six months of the ongoing fiscal year remained at Rs 2250 billion along with non-tax revenue collection of Rs706 billion.
On February 16, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has clarified that it had generated a record Rs2407 billion tax revenue in the first seven months link.
The FBR witnessed a 17 per cent increase in tax revenue as compared to last year, reads the FBR statement. It further adds FBR last year had collected link Rs2062 billion tax.
This increase has been registered despite a US $5 billion compressions in imports, the board link said in a statement issued here.
On the other hand domestic collection has increased from Rs1066 billion last years to Rs1341 billion this year, showing an unprecedented increase of 27%.