Pak's annual defence exp may balloon to Rs 58,000 cr

Pakistan's annual expenditure could cross the budgeted allocation of Rs 442 billion and balloon to Rs 580 billion, according to a media report.

Pakistan's defence spending exceeded the budgetary limits for the first quarter of July-September.

The defence spending exceeded the budgetary limits for the first quarter by about Rs 28 billion because of the war on terror and the military's prolonged stay in the restive tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, a senior unnamed official told the Dawn newspaper.

The defence spending for July-September was estimated at Rs 89 billion but the finance ministry's provisional figures for the period put it at about Rs 117 billion, the official said.

The defence expenditure during the same period last year was about Rs 86 billion.

With this pace of spending, the annual defence expenditure could cross Rs 58,000 crore, against the Rs 55,200 crore estimated by the International Monetary Fund and the government's budgeted allocation of Rs 442 billion, the official said.

Higher than planned expenditure on defence and flood rescue and relief work and lower than estimated revenue collection in the first quarter has increased the quarterly fiscal deficit to 1.6 per cent from the budgeted target of 1.4 per cent of GDP, the official said.

The finance ministry asked ministries, divisions and all federal departments in August to limit their expenditures to 20 per cent of the approved budget during the first quarter of the fiscal year.

The finance ministry's guidelines for the current expenditure require all government agencies and ministries, including the offices of the President and Prime Minister, to keep expenditures at 20 per cent of the approved allocation for the first and second quarters of the fiscal year and 30 per cent in the third and fourth quarters, the official said.

The official said provisional data on fiscal operations had been shared with the IMF and would be made public by end of this month.