Govt prints ‘shorter’ version of budget-in-brief
Excludes revised outlay estimates for the outgoing fiscal year
Prime Minister Imran Khan, other ministers attend NA budget 20-21 session in Islamabad. PHOTO:FACEBOOK/@ImranKhanOfficial
ISLAMABAD:
Days after presenting budget in parliament, the Ministry of Finance has printed a second but “shorter” version of the budget-in-brief and excluded revised budget estimates for the outgoing fiscal year from the most sought-after document.
The government has also not printed the Foreign Economic Assistance 2020-21 budget book for the first time. It used to carry project-wise details of foreign loans and grants.
Instead of ending reliance on foreign loans, the government has stopped printing the project-wise details of foreign loans.
The disclosure about second version comes amid displeasure expressed by Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday over what it called the federal government’s attempt to “bypass the Parliament and Constitution”.
The standing committee passed the remarks while discussing proposed amendments in the Public Finance Management Act 2019.
But Finance Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch denied the allegation of bypassing the Parliament, saying that his ministry was willing to fix problems being identified by the standing committee.
“We are trying to adopt and adapt changes to the best of our abilities and cannot only implement the best international practices and have to see the ground realities,” Baloch said.
Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Finance Farooq H Naek had reservations over the federal government’s proposal to get the powers of authorising charged expenditures, known as appropriations in the budget.
“The appropriation powers are very vast and these powers cannot be given to the executive,” Naek said.
“The government was bypassing the Parliament in a very subtle way,” he added.
The government has also proposed that only “major objects of each demand for grant and appropriation” be presented before the Parliament instead of “detailed items of each demand for grant”.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Musadiq Malik remarked it seemed that the government wanted to hide some information from the Parliament and added that it will not be allowed.
The standing committee also had serious issues with the government’s proposal to present a report instead of presenting the Annual Budget Statement before the National Assembly.
“In the budget, all line items have to be given and none of the items will be allowed to be deleted by making an attempt to present a report instead of the Annual Budget Statement,” Malik said.
The government, this time, had to face embarrassment due to errors in the budget documents.
In order to fix these errors, it has now printed a new budget-in-brief – a concise document that used to carry all important information about the budget.
However, in the revised document, the government has excluded some critical information but insisted that it was aimed at bringing some clarity in the document.
The original budget-in-brief document that was tabled in the National Assembly on June 12 had 38 pages and the revised one printed after presentation of the budget consists of only 17 pages and does not have revised budget estimates, except in one table on page 7.
There is also no detail about the National Finance Commission Award and macroeconomic framework.
Instead, some of this information is published in the Annual Budget Statement documents.
The Annual Budget Statement is now more comprehensive and also carries details about fiscal risks, sovereign guarantees and statements of finance adviser, finance secretary and FBR chairperson on Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act implementation and tax concessions.
The Ministry of Finance defended the decision to print a revised version of the budget-in-brief and also the decision to exclude the revised budget estimates from the key documents.
“The changes in the budget-in-brief document have been made to avoid duplication and bringing in a thought process that could reflect the purpose of the outlay,” Budget Additional Secretary Tanveer Butt, who had proposed to introduce the changes, said.
The additional secretary observed that further details had been added to the green and white books of the budget which carry information about the demands for grants.
However, the original budget-in-brief version contained tables comparing budget estimates for 2019-20, revised estimates for 2019-20, and budget estimates for 2020-21.
In the new version, revised estimates for 2019-20 have been removed from all tables except one.
A section containing details of the NFC Award has been removed from the budget-in-brief this year and shifted to Explanatory Memorandum on Federal Receipts.
For this fiscal year, the government had estimated the budget deficit at 7.1% of the GDP but now it has revised the figure to 9.4% of the GDP, suggesting huge slippages due to novel coronavirus, poor FBR performance, higher defence spending and higher spending by government ministries.
The government has excluded the foreign loans repayment figures from the current expenditure and various tables containing details of each of the heads within current expenditure in the revised budget-in-brief document.
A section on “salient features” of budget 2020-21 has also been removed in the new version.
This section has been a regular feature of the budget-in-brief in previous years.
Days after presenting budget in parliament, the Ministry of Finance has printed a second but “shorter” version of the budget-in-brief and excluded revised budget estimates for the outgoing fiscal year from the most sought-after document.
The government has also not printed the Foreign Economic Assistance 2020-21 budget book for the first time. It used to carry project-wise details of foreign loans and grants.
Instead of ending reliance on foreign loans, the government has stopped printing the project-wise details of foreign loans.
The disclosure about second version comes amid displeasure expressed by Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday over what it called the federal government’s attempt to “bypass the Parliament and Constitution”.
The standing committee passed the remarks while discussing proposed amendments in the Public Finance Management Act 2019.
But Finance Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch denied the allegation of bypassing the Parliament, saying that his ministry was willing to fix problems being identified by the standing committee.
“We are trying to adopt and adapt changes to the best of our abilities and cannot only implement the best international practices and have to see the ground realities,” Baloch said.
Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Finance Farooq H Naek had reservations over the federal government’s proposal to get the powers of authorising charged expenditures, known as appropriations in the budget.
“The appropriation powers are very vast and these powers cannot be given to the executive,” Naek said.
“The government was bypassing the Parliament in a very subtle way,” he added.
The government has also proposed that only “major objects of each demand for grant and appropriation” be presented before the Parliament instead of “detailed items of each demand for grant”.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Musadiq Malik remarked it seemed that the government wanted to hide some information from the Parliament and added that it will not be allowed.
The standing committee also had serious issues with the government’s proposal to present a report instead of presenting the Annual Budget Statement before the National Assembly.
“In the budget, all line items have to be given and none of the items will be allowed to be deleted by making an attempt to present a report instead of the Annual Budget Statement,” Malik said.
The government, this time, had to face embarrassment due to errors in the budget documents.
In order to fix these errors, it has now printed a new budget-in-brief – a concise document that used to carry all important information about the budget.
However, in the revised document, the government has excluded some critical information but insisted that it was aimed at bringing some clarity in the document.
The original budget-in-brief document that was tabled in the National Assembly on June 12 had 38 pages and the revised one printed after presentation of the budget consists of only 17 pages and does not have revised budget estimates, except in one table on page 7.
There is also no detail about the National Finance Commission Award and macroeconomic framework.
Instead, some of this information is published in the Annual Budget Statement documents.
The Annual Budget Statement is now more comprehensive and also carries details about fiscal risks, sovereign guarantees and statements of finance adviser, finance secretary and FBR chairperson on Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act implementation and tax concessions.
The Ministry of Finance defended the decision to print a revised version of the budget-in-brief and also the decision to exclude the revised budget estimates from the key documents.
“The changes in the budget-in-brief document have been made to avoid duplication and bringing in a thought process that could reflect the purpose of the outlay,” Budget Additional Secretary Tanveer Butt, who had proposed to introduce the changes, said.
The additional secretary observed that further details had been added to the green and white books of the budget which carry information about the demands for grants.
However, the original budget-in-brief version contained tables comparing budget estimates for 2019-20, revised estimates for 2019-20, and budget estimates for 2020-21.
In the new version, revised estimates for 2019-20 have been removed from all tables except one.
A section containing details of the NFC Award has been removed from the budget-in-brief this year and shifted to Explanatory Memorandum on Federal Receipts.
For this fiscal year, the government had estimated the budget deficit at 7.1% of the GDP but now it has revised the figure to 9.4% of the GDP, suggesting huge slippages due to novel coronavirus, poor FBR performance, higher defence spending and higher spending by government ministries.
The government has excluded the foreign loans repayment figures from the current expenditure and various tables containing details of each of the heads within current expenditure in the revised budget-in-brief document.
A section on “salient features” of budget 2020-21 has also been removed in the new version.
This section has been a regular feature of the budget-in-brief in previous years.