May 14, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 8, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 13: A high-level meeting in the ministry of finance on Tuesday deliberated on clearing the pending bills of the public sector corporations, running into billions of rupees, which is causing problems in firming up budgetary projections for 2008-09.

Informed sources told Dawn that the government’s increasing financial liabilities towards the corporations, particularly Wapda have not so far been cleared and has become one of the serious problems for the new government.

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has directed the officials of the ministry of finance to “liquidate” previous financial liabilities and start with a “clean slate” in the next financial year. The amount of Rs300 billion was said to be required to ensure 6.5 per cent fiscal deficit by June 30 this year against the target of 4 per cent.The sources said that huge financial liabilities other than public sector enterprises, including the privatised Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), were also haunting the budget planners.

“We want that there should be no carry forward financial liabilities in the new budget”, a source said adding that urgent resources were being lined up from the bilateral and multi-lateral donors to address the issue.

He said so far the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) have promised to offer $3 billion by June 30 this year to pull through the difficult current financial year.

The sources said that the government needed to take a “fresh start” from the next financial year to avoid facing serious difficulties in future.

They said that all the ministries and divisions had been advised to present their “clear audited expenses” of the current financial year with a view to have clear idea about their funding requirements in the new budget.

In the absence of Mr Ishaq Dar, who resigned from the cabinet along with other PML-N ministers, the Tuesday’s meeting decided to continue working in line with the broad strategy given by the PML-N leader and approved by the prime minister and PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari.

The sources said that the meeting took into account the Federal Board of Revenue’s 15 per cent increase in revenues to collect Rs1.2 trillion in 2008-09. It has revised downward its Rs1.025 trillion current revenue target to Rs990 billion.

The meeting was of the view that without levying additional taxes, especially on stock markets, real estate and bringing the services sector into tax net, it would be difficult to achieve 15 per cent growth in revenues during the next financial year.