Finance Minister Addresses Budget Concerns

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Muhammad Aurangzeb, addressed stakeholders’ concerns on Wednesday regarding the fiscal year 2025-26 budget, which was presented to the National Assembly (NA) the previous day.

Aurangzeb emphasized the significance of the tariff reform outlined during the budget presentation.

He stated that the government has resolved to eliminate additional customs duties on 4,000 out of a total of 7,000 tariff lines.

Earlier, journalists boycotted the press conference due to the government’s failure to conduct a scheduled technical briefing on the Finance Bill.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government, led by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, presented the federal budget for 2025-26 to parliament on Tuesday. The budget has a total outlay of Rs17.573 trillion and aims for a GDP growth target of 4.2%, compared to 2.7% in the current year.

Aurangzeb described the budget as the initial step in a strategy to foster a competitive economy and boost economic productivity to enhance exports and fundamentally reshape the economy’s structure.

The government has established an inflation target of 7.5% for the upcoming fiscal year. Regarding the fiscal deficit, the government projects a target of 3.9% of GDP, or Rs5,037 billion, down from the current fiscal year’s target of 5.9%.

The primary surplus is projected at 2.4% of GDP, compared to the budgeted 2% in the existing fiscal year, which has been revised to 2.2%.

More updates to follow.