Pakistan's Punjab gets huge share of 51.74% in budgetary distribution

Pakistan's Punjab province got a huge share of 51.74 per cent in the budgetary distribution of resources among the federation and provinces, depicting the favourable behaviours of Shehbaz Sharif-led country's government as his son Hamza Shahbaz is the Chief Minister of the province.

Sindh's share was 24.55 per cent. 14.62 per cent and 9.09 per cent share would be distributed to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan respectively, The Express Tribune reported.

According to the Budget brief, the province-wise ratios were based on multiple indicators including population 82 per cent, poverty or backwardness 10.3 per cent, revenue collection or generation 5 per cent and inverse population density 2.7 per cent.

On Friday, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail presented the budget of 9.5 trillion rupees for the upcoming fiscal year starting from July 2022 to June 2023 at the Lower House of the country's parliament.

A day after the federal budget, Ismail on Saturday said that Pakistan is going through a "very difficult" phase.

"I have never seen a more difficult time in the past 30 years where on the one hand, the international environment is very challenging and the government or administration has worsened and nothing was done to resolve issues," Dawn quoted the Pakistan Finance Minister as saying.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called the budget balanced, progressive and pro-people.

"Making a budget in financially challenging times with so many constraints is no less than a herculean task ... Through this budget, my government will steer our way out of these challenges by taking tough decisions while minimizing the impact on vulnerable segments of the population," the Prime Minister said.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan rejected the budget for the new fiscal year presented by the incumbent government, calling it "anti-people" and "anti-business".

"We reject this anti-people & anti-business budget presented by imported govt," Khan tweeted, saying it is based on "unrealistic assumptions" on inflation and economic growth.

"Budget is based on unrealistic assumptions on inflation (11.5 per cent) and economic growth (5 per cent). Today's SPI of 24 per cent indicates that inflation will be between 25/30 per cent which on the one hand will destroy the common man," he said continuing the thread on Twitter.

Imran went on to say that weekly inflation, as measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), came in at about 24 per cent which also indicates that inflation will be between 25-30 per cent. It will not only destroy the common man but on the other hand, also retard economic growth due to high-interest rates.

All tax reforms and pro-poor programmes introduced during the PTI government had been shelved, he said lambasting at Shehbaz government.