National Assembly passes Finance Bill 2023-24

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Sunday passed the Finance Bill 2023-2024, giving the go-ahead to the budgetary proposals for the upcoming financial year, ARY News reported.

The bill with a total outlay of Rs14,480 billion was moved by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the house.

The House passed the federal budget with the revised targets to appease the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the revival of the stalled loan programme. According to the amendments, the target for tax collection has been revised to Rs 9,415 billion from 9,200 billion.

Rupees Rs801 billion have been allocated for the payments of pension against the earlier allocation of Rs761 billion.

According to the Finance Bill, the provinces will get Rs5,390 billion under National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.

Addressing the National Assembly on Saturday, Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the petroleum development levy was increased from Rs50 to Rs60 per litre, claiming that the limit of the levy will not cross Rs60.

For the fiscal year starting next month, the federal government will raise a further Rs215 billion in new tax and cut Rs85 billion in spending, as well as several other measures to shrink the fiscal deficit, he said.