The President of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi, has authorized the mini-budget, also known as the Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2023. The bill was approved under Article 75 of the Constitution, which requires the President to assent to the bill within 10 days of it being presented to him. The National Assembly had previously passed the mini-budget with some amendments, which is expected to bring Pakistan closer to the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, these changes may have resulted in deeper poverty for the people of Pakistan.
The bill has given effect to new taxation measures worth Rs170 billion, which will have an annual impact of about Rs550 billion. The majority of the taxation measures have been implemented, even though the President had not given his assent when the National Assembly passed the bill.
During his wind-up speech, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had admitted that the people were facing unbearable inflation. However, he blamed the previous government of former prime minister Imran Khan for maladministration. He also admitted that the news stories about Rs675 billion to Rs700 billion taxes were true, and the IMF had demanded those measures, which the government did not accept. Finally, he said that almost all major issues with the IMF were sorted out, and the staff-level agreement was almost reached after the approval of the budget.
