Islamabad—A pro-poor and relief oriented federal
budget for the next financial year with a total
outlay of 2010 billion rupees has been
announced. Presenting the new budget in the
NationalAssembly on Wednesday, Finance Minister
Syed Naveed Qamar said the underlying objective
of the budgetary proposals is to bring relief to
the poor, needy and vulnerable sections of the
society. Resource availability during the next
year has been estimated at 1836 billion rupee
against 1394 billion rupees during the last
year. The net revenue receipts have been
estimated at 1111 billion rupees indicating an
increase of 23.1 percent over the outgoing year.
Provincial share in the federal revenue receipts
is estimated at 568 billion rupees, which is 22
percent higher than the budget estimates of the
current year. The external receipts are
estimated at 300 billion rupees. The overall
expenditure during the next financial year has
been estimated at 2010 billion rupees of which
the current expenditure will 1493 billion rupees
and PSDP 550 billion rupees. The provinces have
been allocated an amount of 150 billion rupees
for their PSDP. The current expenditure shows a
decrease of one point five percent over the
revised estimates of this year while PSDP will
be 20% higher than the current year.
Islamabad—Minister for Finance, Syed
Naveed Qamar on Wednesday proposed 20 percent
increase in basic pay of all the federal
government employees as well as the armed forces
in the budget 2008-09. In his budget speech in
the Parliament House, he said that 20 percent
raise has also been proposed in the pension of
all civilian and military pensioners. The
Minister pointed out that minimum pension has
been enhanced from Rs.300 to Rs.2,000. There is
a proposal of 100 percent increase in the
conveyance allowance of government servants of
Grade-1 to 19, he added. He said the medical
allowance has been enhanced from Rs.425 to
Rs.500 for government servants of Grade-1 to 16.
Peshawar—A pre dawn reckless ground and aerial
attack by the coalition forces on Mohmand agency
some forty kilometers from here and bordering
troubled Afghanistan, has reportedly left over
twenty four people including 13 army men dead
and several others injured. Those killed include
an Army Major.
The Army sources have strongly condemned the
cowardly attack on the Pakistani territory in
the so-called pursuit of the Taliban by the US
and Allied forces operating inside Afghanistan.
According to military sources, fresh contingents
have been dispatched to the troubled spot to
reinforce the troops.
The Pakistani military spokesman has said such
kind of aggressions were destined to affect the
Pakistan-US relations in war on terror.
Islamabad—Finance Minister Naveed Qamar on
Wednesday said the government has decided to
increase duty on some 300 luxury items by 15
percent to 35 percent, to discourage their
import in the country. In his budget speech, the
minister announced that the unnecessary items
which fall under the category of ‘luxury items’
include perfumes, decoration items, crockery,
tiles, furniture, hunting weapons, air
conditioners, refrigerators, deep freezers and
cooking range etc. There is also a proposal to
increase duty on biscuits, chocolate, cookies,
cigarettes, cigar and ready made food items.
Duty on cars upto 1800 cc or more has been
increased from 90 percent to 100 percent. There
is also a 10 percent proposed duty on old cars
and jeeps having engine of less than 1800 cc. Rs
500 will be charged per set on the import of a
mobile phone.
Islamabad—Government has proposed an increase in
subsidy to the urea fertilizers by Rs.400 to
Rs.1000 per bag to further increase per hectare
crop production. According to budgetary
document, it has proposed that subsidiary amount
in urea fertilizers needs to be increased from
Rs. 25 billion to Rs. 32 billion. It said that
fertilizers and other pesticides would be
exempted from sales tax which would increase the
burden of Rs 6 billion.
Multan—Deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP)
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday
underlined that supremacy of judiciary creates
sense of security among the people.
He said this while addressing lawyers’
convention held here under Multan High Court Bar
Wednesday. He urged the lawyers to continue
their struggle with full force adding the
justice will prevail if the judiciary is
independent. People of the country support rule
of the law, therefore, they should continue to
lend support to the ongoing movement of the
lawyers for independence of judiciary, he
stressed.
Islamabad—The government has
allocated Rs. 18000.000 million for higher
education commission in Public Sector
Development Programme (PSDP) for the Financial
Year 2008-2009. The allocation includes
Rs.17465.873 million for on-going projects and
Rs. 534.127 million for new ones.
Islamabad—Following are the salient features of
the national budget for fiscal 2008-09,
presented in the national assembly here
Wednesday.
· The total outlay of budget 2008-09 is Rs. 2010
billion. The size is 29.7% higher than the size
of budget estimates for 2007-08.
· The resources availability during 2008-09 has
been estimated at Rs. 1836 billion against Rs.
1394 billion in the budget estimates of 2007-08.
Islamabad—The Federal Government has directed
city administration here on Wednesday to remove
containers and barriers from Constitution Avenue
aimed to stop lawyers’ long march. The decision
was taken after consultation with top leadership
of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and other
coalition parties.
