If we minimise such expenditures, the budget deficit will surely decrease and we may experience a budget surplus
PESHAWAR: According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word ‘austerity’ means “the condition of living without unnecessary things and without comfort”. Austerity policies are those that aim at reducing the budget deficit. A budget can be a ‘surplus’ one or a one that results in a ‘deficit’. A budget deficit is when government expenditures are more than its revenue. Pakistan is experiencing a budget deficits and the IMF has predicted that our budget deficit might be 4.6 per cent of the GDP this year.
The government revenue is the tax collected from taxpayers. This revenue is used to run the public sector. Expenditures include salaries of the government servants, expenses made on the prime minister’s house, president’s house, governor’s houses, chief minister’s houses, foreign embassies and the expenses borne on the foreign trips of different government functionaries. Expenditures also include the luxury of chauffeur-driven cars and petrol for government servants and so on. If we minimise such expenditures, the budget deficit will surely decrease and we may experience a budget surplus. I often can’t help but wonder as to why no government takes these types of steps.
Dr Khizar Azam Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, November 10th, 2015.
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