NA approves 83 demands for grant worth over Rs4.5tr

Okays charged expenditure worth Rs27.88tr

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly on Monday approved 83 demands for grant valued at more than Rs4.57 trillion for 30 ministries, divisions and institutions having no cut motions on them and the “charged expenditure” worth Rs27.88 trillion related to different services and purposes for the financial year ending on June 30, 2023.

The lower house, which met under the chairmanship of Raja Pervez Ashraf, okayed five demands for grant of over Rs1.57 trillion for defence and two demands for grant worth more than Rs3.11 billion for the defence production.

Similarly, three demands for grant of Rs14.9 billion for Aviation Division and one demand for grant of Rs10.19 billion for the Airport Security Force was sanctioned.

The National Assembly also okayed charged expenditure worth Rs27.88 trillion related to different services and purposes for the financial year ending on June 30, 2023

The House approved Rs10 million for Pakistan Post Office Department, Rs3.45 billion for superannuation allowances and pensions, Rs22 billion for grants, subsidies and miscellaneous expenditure, Rs50 million for foreign missions, Rs310.2 million for Law and Justice Division, Rs2.7 billion for the National Assembly, Rs2.34 billion for Senate, Rs296.87 billion for external development loans and advance by the federal government and  Rs411 million for household and allowances of the president (public).

The lower house also sanctioned Rs645 million for staff, household and allowances of the president (personal), Rs510.97 billion for servicing of foreign debt, Rs3.79 trillion for foreign loans repayment, Rs142.77 billion for repayment of short-term foreign credits, Rs6.09 billion for audit, Rs3.43 trillion for servicing of domestic debt, Rs19.65 trillion for repayment of domestic debt, Rs3.09 billion for the Supreme Court, Rs1.12 billion for Islamabad High Court, Rs6.28 billion for Election Commission of Pakistan, Rs100 million for Federal Ombudsman Secretariat for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace, Rs943 million for the Wafaqi Mohtasib and Rs306 million for the Federal Tax Ombudsman.

Participating in the discussion, Wajiha Qamar of the PTI expressed concern over the budgetary proposals and stressed the need for reducing the country's imports and increasing exports to strengthen the national economy.

Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali of the MMAP called for increasing the budgetary allocation and authority of the ECP, and asked to avoid unnecessary spending on other heads.

Syed Hussain Tariq of the PPPP, Javeria Zafar Aheer of PTI, Osama Qadri of MQM-P and Ramesh Kumar Vankwani of PTI also spoke and called upon the government to adopt more austerity measures to reduce expenses.

Winding up the debate, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha said around 98 per cent of the charged expenses were related to debt and debt servicing.

With input from APP