This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed “Fiscal outcome in the first quarter” carried by the newspaper yesterday. The writer, Dr Hafiz A. Pasha, deserves commendation for presenting a highly informed perspective on the fiscal outcomes in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year 2024-25.

That the writer never loses sight of objectivity is a fact that has found its best expression from his conclusion; according to which, “Debt servicing is likely to rise sharply in coming quarters.

Achieving a reduction in the budget deficit from 6.8% of the GDP in 2023-24 to 5.8% of the GDP in 2024-25 will remain a big challenge. Sooner or later, a large mini-budget of taxation proposals may be required to facilitate the achievement of the FBR revenue target and sustain the momentum in the IMF Programme.”

Having said that, I would like to draw the attention of newspaper readers to the fact that the improvement in economic indicators, however modest, is a cause of celebration.

Unfortunately, however, the government or governments, particularly federal and Punjab governments, appear to have gone into a rhetorical overdrive. Little do our rulers, however, know that the country’s economy is not yet out of the woods; each and everyone in the government, therefore, is required to pull his or her socks up without any further loss of time in view of the fact that the economic situation is still far from satisfactory, brooking no complacency.

Tehsin Javed (Islamabad)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024