Dar chairs meeting to roll out budget preparations

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday chaired a meeting to roll out the preparations for next year's budget. Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood made a detailed presentation on the budget. Dar expressed satisfaction over fiscal results for the first eight months of the current year which showed a deficit of 3.2 percent as compared to the proportionate target up to February of 3.5 percent.
Dar stressed the need for continued vigilance on expenditure in line with revenue receipts so that the budgetary targets are achieved without failure. While commenting on the preparatory exercise, presented to him, the finance minister emphasised that austerity will continue to remain the hallmark of PML-N's budget strategy and fiscal management. The finance minister further underlined the need for clear and meaningful indications of budgetary ceilings to all federal ministries and for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) so that they can prioritise and formulate their expenditure proposals well in time.-PR