Country's budget deficit soars to Rs484bn

ISLAMABAD: The country’s budget deficit soared to Rs 484 billion during the first quarter of the current financial year, ARY News reported.

According to the details, the budget deficit during the first quarter (July to September) of the fiscal year-2020 remained -1.1 of the gross domestic product (GDP).

The total expenditure of the government during the first quarter was Rs 1963 billion. Statistics revealed that Rs1872 paid as interest and Rs 224 billion spent on the defence during the three months

However, total tax revenue during the period was Rs 1122 billion and Rs 356 billion non-tax revenue with federal component of Rs 335 billion in non-tax revenue came from two accounts – Rs 105 billion SBP surplus profit and Rs 136 billion from petroleum levy.

On August 29, Finance ministry had said that the debt burden on the economy had reached upto 87.2 percent, terming the rise mainly due to the impact of coronavirus on the economy.

A spokesman for the ministry had said that the debt burden on the economy stood at 86.1 per cent in June 2019 and witnessed an improvement of two per cent by December 2019 to reach 84 per cent.

The coronavirus impacted the economy, he had said after the debt witnessed a three per cent increase from December 2019 to June 2020.

“We had lowered our expenditure in February 2020 and even tackled the current account deficit before the pandemic hit the country [late in February]”, the spokesman had said adding that the COVID-19 changed the fiscal position since then.