National Budget for FY-2008-09 to be presented tomorrow

ISLAMABAD : The National budget for the fiscal year 2008-09 envisaging relief measures for the masses specially the poor segment of the society and conceiving new steps for accelerating pace of economic development and growth in the country will be presented here in the National Assembly on June 11 (Wednesday).
Minister of Finance, Revenues, Economic Affairs and Privatization, Syed Naveed Qamar will present the budget at the floor of lower house and his speech will be telecast live over the Radio and Television from the Parliament House.
The consolidated outlay of the next year budget 2008-09 is likely to be over Rs 2 trillion and revenue target is also estimated to be Rs.1200 billion with a realistic GDP growth target of 5.5 percent.
The budget this financial year (2007-08) will be on infrastructure, human capital and social sector development, poverty reduction, promotion of investments and exports, agriculture sector development and provision of relief to the common man.
According to official sources the next budget would provide relief to the common man, besides accelerating pace of economic development and investment in the country.
They added that the government was keen to provide relief to the people in the next budget for which concrete measures were under active consideration.
The government has already indicated that in the Budget 2008-09, the enhancement in the salaries and pension of the government employees besides a number of measures for the relief of the people in the country.
The budgetary relief would help the people to check inflationary burden causing due to high international oil prices and food prices .
The budgetary measures would also help generate employment opportunities, check poverty and improve the quality of life of the people across the country, they remarked.
They said that the Government in the budget is also focusing on human resource development and skill development of the manpower which is indispensable ingredient for the rapid economic progress.
The government in the budget is likely to announce a number of measures for the development of agriculture and industrial sectors for generating more employment opportunities for the masses. The government is also striving to accelerate economic activities in the country and it has enhanced the volume of Public Sector Development Programme
(PSDP) for the FY208-09 to the tune of Rs.541 billion.
Pakistan’s economy has grown at an average rate of almost 7.0 percent per annum during the last five years.
They added that real GDP in the outgoing financial year (2007-08) grew by 5.8 percent against the target of 7.7 percent.