The National Assembly on Wednesday approved a supplementary budget of Rs 1.246 trillion for expenses incurred during the fiscal year 2020-21, after being presented to the House by the Federal Minister of Finance, Shaukat Tarin.
In presenting the supplementary budget for FY2020-21, Shaukat Tarin said that this is not the first time the PTI has submitted supplementary donations, but during all previous governments.
“Previous governments have sought approval for more grants than our mandate,” he said, adding that in 2012-13, supplementary donations of Rs 1300 billion were submitted, followed by Rs 5 trillion in 2013-14.
“Rs33 billion has been released for the Diamer Bhasha dam,” he said in detailing the supplemental subsidies for the exit fiscal year. The finance minister emphasized the need to launch sincere efforts to end supplemental subsidies.
Shaukat Tarin further said that in 2020-21, they provided a subsidy of Rs 260 billion to the energy sector and INR 9.8 billion to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to improve their business.
He said that the House of Prime Minister received a supplementary grant of Rs8 billion in 2019-20 for expenses related to COVID’s relief package.
Finance bill 2021-22 was presented to the National Assembly by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin and initially, the spokesman sought to approve the bill through an oral vote, however later after opposition demand, he held a vote in person.
During the polling process, 138 opposition members voted against the Treasury bill against 172 representatives from the Treasury who supported it, paving the way for the approval of the federal budget.
It is pertinent to mention here that federal budget 2021-22 was already approved with a majority vote of 172 lawmakers by the National Assembly on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Imran Khan attending the proceedings.
