News
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Budget deficit swells to 6.3% of GDP in 2009-10* Rs 642 billion spent on debt servicing, Rs 375 billion on defence
By Sajid Chaudhry
ISLAMABAD: The consolidated budget deficit of the federal and provincial governments for the fiscal year 2009-10 has shot up to Rs 929.061 billion, over 6.3 percent of the country’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
According to the ‘Fiscal Operations Report’ released by the Ministry of Finance, the total revenues during the period amounted to Rs 2 trillion, but the expenditures were at Rs 3.038 trillion, resulting in a deficit of Rs 929.061 billion.
Revenues: The total revenues, which amounted to Rs 2.078 trillion or 14.2 percent of the GDP during the period, included federal and provincial tax revenues (Rs 1.472 trillion) and federal taxes (Rs 1.418 trillion), while the provincial governments contributed Rs 54.8 billion.
Non-tax revenues were at Rs 605.344 billion, that included Rs 537.4 billion in federal non-tax revenues. Non-tax revenues also included Rs 25.9 billion from development surcharge on gas, Rs 12.4 billion through discount retained on crude oil and Rs 33 billion from oil and gas royalty.
Expenditures: The total expenditures were at Rs 3 trillion or 20.5 percent of the GDP during the July to June period of the last fiscal year, which included Rs 2.386 trillion in non-development expenditures. In the non-development expenditures, the government spent Rs 642.2 billion (4.4 percent of GDP) on debt servicing and Rs 375 billion (2.6% of GDP) on defence.
Development expenditures and total lending amounted to Rs 652.8 billion and the federal development expenditures remained at Rs 259.4 billion, while provincial development expenditures were at Rs 258.4 billion.
In order to bridge the deficit, the government got Rs 929 billion through local and external borrowing. Over Rs 188.8 billion were received from external lenders and Rs 740.172 billion from local lenders.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk