The federal government’s fiscal woes have multiplied, as Pakistan paid Rs5.517 trillion in debt servicing in the first nine months of the FY2023-24, ARY News reported on Thursday, quoting an official document of the finance ministry.
According to the fiscal operation report released by the finance ministry, Pakistan paid Rs4807 bln in domestic debt servicing and Rs710 billion in international debt servicing.
According to the fiscal operation for the July-March period released by the ministry of finance on Tuesday, the gross revenue receipts of the federal government stood at Rs9.1 trillion out of which the Centre provided Rs3.8 trillion to the provinces under the NFC Award, leaving the net revenue receipts at Rs5.3 trillion.
Punjab received Rs1,865 billion under the NFC Award during July-March in FY2023-24, while Sindh received Rs946 billion from the divisible pool. KP and Balochistan received Rs623 billion and Rs379 billion, respectively.
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The federal government collected Rs2.237 trillion under sales tax during July-March 2023-24, while Rs402 billion were collected under Federal Excise Duty.
The report further said that provinces collected Rs353 billion in sales tax while Rs8 billion under excise duty.
The fiscal operation also shows that the overall budget deficit climbed close to Rs4 trillion in the first nine months, equivalent to 3.7 percent of GDP. The primary balance (excluding the debt servicing) remained surplus at Rs1.6 trillion.
