National Assembly: Rs7.47t approved for charged expenditures

This includes Rs6.2t for past liabilities and Rs1.1t for new current essential spending.

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly on Friday approved Rs7.47 trillion for charged expenditures, including Rs6.2 trillion for past liabilities and Rs1.1 trillion for new current essential spending.

Parliament, under the constitution, cannot vote on charged expenditures and has no other option but to approve the spending bill on account of domestic and international debt repayments and servicing, expenditures of the Presidency, partial Railways spending, National Assembly and Senate.

Of the total Rs7.47 trillion, an amount of Rs6.2 trillion is the accumulated domestic debt of the past 64 years. From the new charged expenditures for the next financial year 2011-12, the lower House of the Parliament approved Rs714.6 billion for domestic debt servicing, Rs 243.6 billion for foreign loan repayments and Rs36.2 billion for foreign debt servicing.

The assembly also approved Rs205 billion for payments of pensions and allowances. Among the approved charged expenditures, Rs130 million was approved for the Pakistan Post; Rs740.91 million for National Assembly; Rs 570.18 million for Senate; Rs 9.26 billion for Pakistan Railways and Rs 49.6 billion for the repayment of foreign debt of the federal government.

Furthermore, an amount of Rs480.2 million was approved for the employees and allowances of the Presidency, Rs300 million for the audit of government departments, Rs980 million for the Supreme Court, and Rs210.2 million for Islamabad High Court.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2011.