Govt earned Rs34bn in just six months: Increase in oil, gas prices
By Khaleeq Kiani
ISLAMABAD, March 2: The government has pocketed Rs34 billion in just six months of the current fiscal as a result of increase in prices of oil and gas -– almost 100 per cent over and above the target of Rs18 billion for the entire financial year.
The collection of oil and gas surcharges is almost 77 per cent higher than last year’s collection of Rs19 billion, reveals ministry of finance’s half-yearly data on fiscal operations.
The government collected about Rs18.015 billion as surcharge on oil in just six months as a result of higher international prices. It fixed zero collection target as petroleum development surcharge in the budget and announced a Rs10-billion subsidy on oil prices. The government, however, did not disclosed how much it collected on oil prices as 15 per cent sales tax and other duties.
Similarly, the government collected more than Rs15.8 billion as development surcharge in just six months of the current fiscal year against a full-year budgeted target of Rs18 billion. This is about 70 per cent higher than Rs9.3 billion collected in the same period last year.
In addition to these surcharges, the government also recovered Rs14 billion on account of royalty on oil and gas in the first six months of the current fiscal year as against Rs10 billion in the same period last year, showing an increase of 40 per cent. The sales tax collection also increased significantly because of its fixed 15 per cent rate which automatically goes up with higher sale rates.
The data show that the government contained its budget deficit at Rs169 billion by cutting down defence expenditure and earning higher surcharges, which otherwise would have been much higher.
The defence expenditure declined by Rs4 billion to Rs115 billion during the first six months of the current fiscal as compared to Rs119 billion in the same period last year. If this trend continues, Pakistan’s defence expenditure is expected to be around Rs230 billion, even lower than last year’s revised estimates of Rs241 billion.
Budgeted target for defence expenditure for the current fiscal year was put at Rs250 billion.
The official statistics also suggest that while total revenue at seven per cent of GDP was slightly higher than 6.67 per cent of last year, the rate of total expenditure also increased to 8.9 per cent of GDP this year as against 8.5 per cent last year. Interestingly, the unidentified expenditure has increased by a mammoth 184 per cent to Rs54.4 billion in first six months of the current year as compared to Rs19 billion in the same period last year.
The data showed that external borrowing increased by about 142 per cent to Rs96.2 billion as compared to Rs39.8 billion. Domestic borrowing, however, reduced by 25 per cent to Rs73 billion against Rs97 billion.
On provincial basis, the Punjab government faced a net financing gap of Rs33 billion in the first six months the current fiscal year as compared to Rs5.7 billion last year. Sindh’s deficit reached Rs882 million as compared to last year’s surplus of Rs2.8 billion. NWFP’s deficit decreased from Rs5.4 billion last year to Rs926 million this year, while Balochistan’s last year deficit of Rs3.7 billion turned into a Rs7.86 billion surplus this year.
