ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has deferred the approval of mini-budget as some members wanted to go through its details. The mini-budget bill was to be presented in the parliament today (Dec 29), but the government has delayed it to satisfy anxious cabinet ministers.
“The cabinet deferred approval of the supplementary finance bill today as it wants a discussion on it before presenting it in the national assembly for passage,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said. He said a special meeting of the cabinet would be held soon on a one-point agenda — the supplementary finance bill. He said the bill would be presented in the current session of the parliament and an initial discussion on the draft was held in the cabinet meeting.
The approval of mini-budget (supplementary finance bill) is one of the upfront conditions of the IMF to resume stalled assistance for Pakistan, involving disbursement of $1 billion tranche. Through mini-budget, the government plans to abolish subsidies amounting over 300 billion rupees and generation more than 300 billion rupees additional tax revenue in this financial year.
Information Minister said the federal cabinet had approved the country’s first-ever NSP which was unveiled by the high-powered National Security Committee on Monday with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair.
“It is for the first time that economic strategy has been linked with geostrategic policy because if economy of a country is not strong, its security cannot be guaranteed. Until the common man is satisfied with the economic, social and legal situation, the security of the country will remain in danger,” he said.
Describing salient features of the policy, the minister said the document would be shared with the media within 10 days, adding that the National Security Policy focused on the common man.
