New Pakistan FM hikes defence budget by 10%
28 April 2018 4:25 AM IST
Islamabad: The Pakistan government on Friday hiked the country's defence spending by nearly 10 per cent as it presented an over Rs 5.6 trillion federal budget in parliament for the next financial year.
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail presented the budget for the financial year 2018-19, which is the sixth consecutive budget of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Ismail said that total outlay of the budget is Rs 5,661 billion (5.6 trillion), 13 per cent higher than the previous. He said 6.2 per cent was the GDP target for 2018-19 against six per cent for the outgoing year, which could not be achieved as the government registered 5.8 per cent.
The minister said the budget deficit for the upcoming year will be 4.9 per cent of GDP and the target net public debt to GDP ratio will be 63.2 per cent.
He said the "defence budget has been increased from Rs 999 billion to Rs 1,100 billion for fiscal year 2018-19". The overall size of national development outlay for the next financial year is Rs 2,043 billion, with a foreign assistance component of Rs 339 billion.
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