Under the supervision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government presented the final budget of 14 thousand 500 billion rupees for the year 2024-2023 with a deficit of 750 billion rupees during the political and economic crisis.
An increase of 35% has been announced in the salaries of civil servants and 30% for government employees from grade 17 to grade 22.
A meeting of the National Assembly was held under the chairmanship of Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and others also participated in the meeting.
While presenting the budget, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that I am deeply grateful to God Almighty that I am getting the honor of presenting the second budget of the Coalition Government for the financial year 2023-24 before this honorable House.
Mr. Speaker! Before I present the budget figures for the financial year 2023-24 before this Honorable House, with your permission I would like to refer to the government of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister 2013-17 and the incompetent government of Tehreek-e-Insaf 2018-22.
I will present you a comparative review. You may recall that the growth rate of Pakistan’s economy reached 6.1% in the fiscal year 2016-17 under the leadership of Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. The inflation rate was 4 percent.
The annual average increase in food inflation was only 2 percent. Policy Rate 5. 5 percent and percent and the stock exchange was number 1 in South Asia and fifth in the entire world. Pakistan was moving towards prosperity and economic development and the world recognized the progress and prosperity of Pakistan.
According to the projection of the global organization (Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), by the year 2030, Pakistan was going to become a member of 2010-G, that is, it was going to join the 20 largest economies in the world.
The Pakistani rupee is stable and the foreign exchange reserves are the highest of 24 billion dollars. had set a historical record. Continuing his speech, he said that new projects were completed to meet the shortage of electricity in the country.
This saved the country from daily load shedding of 12 to 16 hours and A major obstacle in economic development was removed.
Apart from this, people-friendly projects such as infrastructure sector, construction of highways, mass transit systems, employment opportunities and provision of easy loans were completed. was It was a period of prosperity, stability and growth. It should be remembered that in the financial year 2017-18, the target of the federal development budget was set at 1001 billion rupees for the first time, which could not be set again till date. Thanks to the Zarb-e-Azb and Radal-Fasaad operations and the sacrifices of the Pakistan Army, the menace of terrorism was eradicated from the roots across the country. There was peace and political stability in Pakistan. In the budget speech, the finance minister said that Mr. Speaker! In these circumstances, conspiracies were laid against the elected democratic government.
As a result of which a selected government came into existence in August 2018. It is enough to say about the economic failures of this selected government that the country which had become the 24th largest economy in the world in 2017 fell to the 47th place in 2022.
Mr. Speaker! Today, Pakistan is going through the most difficult phase in its economic history. I would like to say with utmost confidence that the real responsibility for today’s bad economic situation is the previous government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.