There is political tension and tension in Pakistan at the moment due to the government of opposition political parties in central Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The coalition government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PPP), JUIF and other parties in the center has grievances with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on various issues. Governments have reservations about central government.
Despite the daily accusations against each other, the central coalition government and the Tehreek-e-Insaf governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are on the same page on one issue and in the first quarter of the current financial year of Pakistan, the central government and the four provincial governments on it. He made it possible by showing equality.
In this case, one of the basic conditions for the IMF to release the loan tranche for Pakistan is the surplus of the country's primary budget, among other conditions.
The primary budget surplus by the Tehreek-e-Insaf governments of the four provinces, especially Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is significant in the sense that a few months ago, in an audio leak of former finance minister Shaukat Tareen's telephonic conversation with the finance ministers of the two provinces, Shaukat Tareen had asked the duo to inform the IMF about the non-compliance.
After the audio leak came to light, Shaukat Tareen was criticized for sabotaging the deal with the IMF.
Similarly, Taimur Jhagra expressed his inability to meet the IMF condition of the provincial government to have a budget surplus, when he wrote a letter to the then Finance Minister Miftah Ismail in this regard, however, the audio of the telephone conversation was not recorded. Despite the letter from Leak and the Timur dispute, the IMF approved the resumption of the loan program for Pakistan, under which the country received a $1.1 billion tranche in late August.
To get the next tranche, the IMF is going to convene an early meeting for the Ninth Review Review for Pakistan and before that, while Pakistan is struggling to meet the other conditions, Pakistan's primary The condition of budget surplus has been met which is evident from the figures released by the federal government for the first quarter.
What is a primary budget?
Budget is a commonly understood word which was mostly discussed in the months of May and June, but now mini budgets are also coming in Pakistan for many years, so the words budget and mini budget are now heard throughout the year.
But what is the term primary budget and why the IMF imposed the condition of surplus, Dr. Ashfaq Hasan Khan, an economist who was associated with Pakistan's Ministry of Finance in the past, said that 'Budget is income and expenditure. is estimated. If the income is high and the expenditure is low, then the budget will be surplus and if the expenditure is high and the income is low, then it will be a deficit budget.
He said 'Primary budget is income and expenditure which does not include interest payments.'
He said that in the primary budget, if the income is more than the expenditure excluding the interest payment, then this primary budget will be surplus and if the expenditure is more than the income even after deducting the interest payment, then such primary budget will be a deficit budget. .
In the budget of Pakistan for the current financial year, the expenditure has been estimated at 9,118 billion rupees, of which 3,114 billion rupees have been allocated for internal and external debt repayment this year.
How much was the primary surplus budget of the federal and provincial governments?
The country's financial data released by the Federal Ministry of Finance for the first quarter shows that in the period under review, although the overall budget deficit of the country remained at 1 percent, the primary surplus budget remained at 0.2 percent, which means that Pakistan has It does not include interest paid to repay loans in the first quarter.
The Punjab Government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf gave a surplus primary budget of Rs 125 billion in the first quarter and the surplus primary budget of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government of Tehreek-e-Insaf in this quarter was around Rs 3 billion.
The surplus primary budget given by the second largest party of the central government, Pakistan People's Party, to the provincial government based in Sindh in this quarter was worth sixty billion rupees. Part of the coalition government in the central government Balochistan government headed by Balochistan Awami Party gave a surplus primary budget of 29.5 billion in this quarter.
All four provincial governments of Pakistan posted their primary budget surplus, leading to the country's overall primary budget surplus in the first quarter, which is required to be in surplus under IMF conditions.
Minister of State for Finance Dr. Ayesha Pasha while speaking to BBC said that the IMF has asked for the primary budget to be in surplus and so far according to the data the primary budget has been in surplus.
He said that for this the federal government did resource mobilization and brought more discipline in its financial affairs.
He said that the provinces also increased their revenue and their financial condition is also good, which led to this primary budget surplus.
How did the primary budget become surplus despite political differences?
Sindh and Balochistan are governed by the allies of the coalition government at the center, but in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Tehreek-e-Insaf government, which is politically aligned against the central government, wants to topple this government and hold early general elections in the country. However, the coalition government at the center and the provincial governments of Tehreek-e-Insaaf showed a surplus in the primary budget under the IMF condition.
Surplus primary budget has been given by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at a time when the federal government is being accused by the province of net hydel profit, non-disbursement or under-disbursement of funds in the province's integrated districts of banned FATA and development budget. .
The provincial finance minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Taimur Saleem Jhagra was criticized for not providing funds to the federal government a few days ago.
Despite complaints of lack of funds, the primary budget of the province is in surplus when the BBC took a stand in this regard from Timur Jhagra, they said that the primary budget has to be surplus under the condition of the IMF.
He said, "We helped the federal government in this regard, but on the other hand, the federal government does not seem to be open-minded enough to solve our problems in the same way that the province is facing due to lack of financial resources." '
Although Taimur Jhagra questioned the accounting system throughout the process, the way the data was collected and estimated, he said that the data was broadly correct.
Speaking to BBC, Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Laghari said that he has followed the budget that was planned.
He said that political differences are still there but under the IM condition, the primary budget had to be surplus. He said that there was political disagreement with the central government but the IMF program was for the country, so it worked.
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