NA approves charged expenditure of over Rs 43 trillion

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Wednesday approved the charged expenditure of Rs 43,477,834,265,000 including servicing of domestic and foreign debt.

The charged expenditure is included in Demands for Grants and Appropriations for the financial year ending on June 30, 2020.

The expenditure will be charged from the Federal Consolidated Fund.

According to the Constitution, all revenues received by the federal government, all loans raised by the government and all moneys received by it in repayment of any loan, shall form part of a Federal Consolidated Fund.

The charged expenditure included Rs 4,566,077,000 for superannuation allowances and pensions, Rs 20,400,000,000 for grants in aid and miscellaneous adjustments between federal and provincial governments, Rs 75,000,000 for other expenditure of Foreign Affairs Division, Rs 2,000 for civil works, Rs 255,331,000 for other expenditure of Law and Justice Division, Rs 1,959,590,000 for National Assembly, Rs 1,877,576,000 for Senate, Rs 18,000,000 for Pakistan Post Office Department, Rs 1,100,000,000 for Pakistan Railways, Rs 163,103,905,000 for External Development Loans and Advances by the Federal Government, Rs 992,000,000 for Staff, Household and Allowances of the President,

Rs 5, 365,000,000 for audit, Rs 2,531,684,573,000 for servicing of domestic debt, Rs 39, 172,623, 294,000 for repayment of domestic debt, Rs 359,764,391,000 for servicing of foreign debt, Rs 1,095,254,433,000 for foreign loans repayment, Rs 108,300,093,000 for repayment of short

term foreign credits, Rs 2,095,000,000 for Supreme Court, Rs 579,000, 000 for Islamabad High Court, Rs 6,849,000,000 for Election, Rs

719,000,000 for Wafaqi Mohtasib and Rs 253,000,000 for Federal Tax Ombudsman.

Before the approval of the charged expenditure, discussion under clause (1) of Article 82 of the Constitution of Pakistan was held in the National Assembly.

Taking part in the debate Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha said that 83 percent growth had been registered in demands for grants which was unprecedented.

1She asked the government to share reason behind the growth of demands and grants.

1Naveed Qamar said that it looked the government would not achieve the set target of revenue collection.

1He said that it was unfortunate that members of Election Commission of Pakistan had not been appointed due to lack of consensus.

He asked the government to develop consensus for the nomination of ECP members.

Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh said that it was unfortunate that about 20 percent inflation was recorded during the PTI government tenure.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that the PTI government had taken loans which was a matter of concern as PTI had always talked against taking of loans.

Riaz Ul Haq said that demands for grants had risen which was unacceptable.

Khawaja Muhammad Asif said it was unfortunate that Pakistani rupee had devalued which was hurting the economy.

“Free fall should be controlled as interest rate will also skyrocket,” he added.

Shazia Marri asked for the issuance of production orders of detained members of National Assembly.

Hina Rabbani Khar said that the country’s economy was in bad shape and imbalance in exchange rate was unproductive for the economy.

She said that PTI government had done nothing to improve the country’s economy.