ISLAMABAD: Amid strong criticism for disrespecting mandate of parliament, the government indicated its intention to increase the defence budget by 10 per cent and pensions by up to 15pc for the next financial year.

At a joint meeting of the standing committees of the Senate and the National Assembly on Finance and Revenue, Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar and Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood presented medium-term budgetary framework (2014-17) and a couple of next year’s budget numbers.

They came under sharp criticism for ignoring the parliamentary committees in consultation process for budget-making, particularly for not convening even a single meeting of the National Assembly’s standing committee on finance for a full year since the PNL-N came to power in June last year.

The finance ministry told the meeting, which was not open to media, that next year’s Public Sector Development Programme was being projected at Rs525 billion against Rs540bn this year, while defence allocation was being projected at Rs700bn against Rs637bn revised expenditure this year.

The meeting was informed that the next year’s total resources had been estimated at Rs3.973 trillion and fiscal deficit at 4.8pc of GDP. The target for the Federal Board of Revenue had been set at Rs2.810trn and non-tax revenue at Rs817bn. Of the total, Rs1.703trn had been estimated as provincial share.

“The budget strategy paper is a wishful list and its targets are ambitious,” said former PPP finance minister Salim H. Mandviwala after the meeting, co-chaired by Senator Nasrin Jalil of the MQM and MNA Omar Ayub Khan of the PML-N. This is the first time that two committees were merged for a briefing on MTBF.

He said the current year’s revenue target had been revised thrice and next year’s target had been set at Rs2,810bn. The total revenue target for the next year had been set at Rs3873bn, he said.

Senator Talha Mahmood of the JUI-F said there were strong indications that inflation would go up and unemployment rate would rise. He said the indicators shared by the finance minister showed the country was moving towards progress, but it was wrong to expect the FBR to achieve next year’s revenue target of Rs2.8trn. It never achieved its past targets, he recalled.

Aftab Ahmad Sherpao criticised the government for holding a joint session of the two committees of the two houses. He said it was ironic that the PML-N did not convene a meeting of the National Assembly’s standing committee on finance even once in a year and its first meeting was merged with the Senate committee.

He said the finance team gave a ‘sketchy’ presentation and when questioned for a belated briefing on the budget, it said it had also briefed the cabinet only early this week. “What kind of input parliamentarians can make or what suggestion one can extend when budget announcement is just a week away,” he questioned and said the mandate of standing committees has been undermined.

Nasrin Jalil said the meeting was informed that defence budget would be increased by 10pc next year.

PPP MNA Nafeesa Shah said the tax-to-GDP ratio this year had declined from the target despite an increase in GST rates which the PML-N had opposed during the PPP government.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2014