A meeting was held here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, which was attended by the Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Chairman FBR, Secretary Finance, Secretary EAD and officials of the Finance Ministry.
The Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue reviewed the overall economic and fiscal situation, federal revenues, external flows and development budget. Advisor was informed that during the first seven months of the current Financial Year, CPI inflation stood at 10.7 percent as compared to 14.3 percent during the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
The food inflation dropped from 19.3 percent to 11.5 percent during the period under review. Exports increased by 7.2 percent and foreign remittances registered a growth of 21 percent resulting in stability in foreign exchange reserves at US $16.8 billion.
The Finance Secretary apprised the meeting that the fiscal deficit was contained at 3.1 percent of GDP from July 2011 to January 2012 which shows a decline from 3.4 percent in the corresponding period of previous Fiscal Year.
The FBR revenues registered a growth of 27 percent during July, 2011-January, 2012 (Rs 975 billion as against 770 billion collected last year). Total federal expenditure was limited to 53 percent of the budget as against proportionate budget target of 58 percent demonstrating federal government's austerity drive and resulting in the savings of 5 percent of the budget.
The total federal development releases during the same period amounted to Rs 202 billion including the foreign project aid disbursement of Rs 60 billion. The government is committed to maintain the PSDP annual target of Rs 300 billion which is an increase of about 30 percent over the last Fiscal Year's actual spending.-PR