Govt presents mini budget today, prices of 5000 products likely to go up
Finance Minister Asad Umar will present the mini budget
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The prices of around 5000 products are expected to increase as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led (PTI) government will present mini budget today (Tuesday).
The federal government has decided to impose regulatory duties on 150 luxury products and to fix the income tax ratio to the June 30 level is also under consideration in new mini budget.
PTI’s focus is to curb imports while increasing the exports in a bid to lessen the trade deficit. For this reason, the government is mulling over reducing the age limit of imported jeeps to 3 years and for cars to 2 years, from 5 and 3 years respectively.
The government is likely to cut down the federal development program through budget.
To counter the budget deficit conundrum, the government has proposed a cut in the federal Public Sector Development Programme from Rs140 billion from Rs800 billion to Rs660 billion along with new taxation measures.
The major customs duty proposal is to increase the additional customs duty by 1% on 5,200 imported product lines. Besides generating about Rs40 billion in taxes, the measure could cut the import bill by around $1 billion.
Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced that Finance Minister Asad Umar will present a mini budget on Tuesday.
Talking to media owners and representatives in Karachi, the prime minister called for austerity, saying eliminating corruption was the topmost priority of his government.
He said that media should play its role in educating citizens about the benefits of constructing dams.
