Pakistan eagerly looks towards foreign donors to boost its income for the new budget and estimates receiving a whopping USD 9.5 billion as foreign economic assistance to help recover its battered economy.
Budget making has become an uphill task due to stagnating foreign investments, repayments of foreign debts and collapsing tax machinery, The Express Tribune reported.
"While the country is pinning high hopes on foreign lenders, it has estimated receiving USD 9.5 billion - the highest ever inflow in a single year - in foreign economic assistance for the next financial year," it reported.
China will be the leading lender expected to contribute USD 3.7 billion or 40 per cent of the total foreign inflows.
The US's contribution is estimated at just USD 160 million or one per cent of the expected annual inflow.
European countries including the European Union are expected to contribute USD 292 million -less than 2 per cent of the annual estimates.
The new financial year, 2015-16, will begin from July this year and the government is now negotiating the fiscal framework with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Dubai.
The estimated amount of USD 9.5 billion is roughly one-tenth higher than what the government has expected to receive in the outgoing financial year 2014-15, sources said.
In the outgoing fiscal year, the government had planned to receive USD 8. 6 billion in foreign economic assistance.
Over a USD 2-billion IMF loan that the country will receive next year is not part of the calculations, as it is booked on State Bank of Pakistan's balance sheet and can only be used for balance of payment support.
The ruling government wants to acquire these loans to finance the budget and meet the shortfall in external payments including repayment of previous loans.
