NA passes Rs1.246 trillion supplementary budget for FY2020-21

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly on Wednesday approved a supplementary budget of Rs1.246 trillion for the expenditure incurred during the fiscal year 2020-21 after being tabled in the House by Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin, ARY NEWS reported.

While presenting the supplementary budget for FY2020-21, Shaukat Tarin said that this is not the first time that PTI has presented supplementary grants rather it happened during every past government.

“Previous governments sought approval for more grants than our tenure,” he said adding that in 2012-13, supplementary grants of Rs1300 billion were tabled, followed by Rs5 trillion grants in 2013-14.

He said that the Prime Minister House received a supplementary grant of Rs8 billion in 2019-20 for expenditure with regard to the COVID relief package.

Shaukat Tarin further said that in 2020-21, they have provided a subsidy of Rs260 billion for the power sector and Rs 9.8 billion to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for improving its affairs.

“Rs33 billion have been released for Diamer Bhasha Dam,” he said while detailing the supplementary grants for the outgoing fiscal year. The finance minister stressed the need to launch sincere efforts for ending supplementary grants.

It is pertinent to mention here that the federal budget 2021-22 has already been adopted with a majority vote of 172 lawmakers by the National Assembly on Tuesday as Prime Minister Imran Khan also attended the proceedings.

The Finance bill 2021-22 was presented before the National Assembly by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin and initially, the speaker sought a nod on the bill through a voice vote, however, later over the opposition’s demand, he held an in-person vote.

During the counting process, 138 members of the opposition voted against the Finance bill as compared to 172 lawmakers of the treasury supporting it, paving way for the approval of the federal budget.