The Finance Law project, 2025, was approved by Parliament on Thursday, which means that the RS17.57 billion budget for the next fiscal year has been green.
The PPP expressed strong reservations on Wednesday on a set of politically unpopular provisions in the federal budget for the next fiscal year, urging the Government to amend the “contentious” clauses before their expected approval in the National Assembly today (Thursday).
The amendments of the Minister of Finance Muhamad Aurengzeb to several laws, including the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, were approved, while the opposition amendments were rejected, according to a Dawn.com correspondent.
The bill was read in the assembly and the clause approved by clause. The session has been postponed until 11 in the morning.
Directing the house, the president of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said that his party “happily support the budget”, since the government had accepted the proposals of the party.
“We appreciate government efforts as the Bisp (Benazir Income Support Program) has increased,” he said. “In addition, the salaried class will not be taxed if its income is equal to RS1.2m per year and the solar tax has been reduced by 50 percent.”
Bilawal added that after the initial rejection of the PPP, his recommendations were accepted regarding the Federal Income Board (FBR).
“We are grateful to the government and the prime minister for accepting our proposals,” Bilawal said.
Meanwhile, amendments to the 1990 Sales Tax Law, presented by Aurengzeb, were approved by a majority vote in the Chamber.
The amendment granted the powers of the Finance Committee to arrest the merchants involved in fiscal fraud exceeding RS50 million. The federal government had previously proposed an amendment to give arrest powers to the tax commissioner.
“The FBR will not have the arrest power during the research stage,” added the amendment.
All amendments introduced by the opposition in the Sales Tax Law were rejected by most votes.
In the same way, an amendment was presented to the Law of Salaries and Assignments with the support of the Minister of Finance, according to which the Ministers of State will receive the same salary as the members of Parliament.
The amendment was approved by a majority vote.
Earlier this month, Aurengzeb announced the annual federal budget of Pakistan in a session of the National Assembly loaded, describing ambitious proposals to promote economic growth of 4.2 percent in the next fiscal year while reducing the general measures of expenses and hardening.
The federal budget for fiscal year 2026 has a total disbursement, the sum of expenses and net loans of funds, of RS17.573 billion, which represents a 6.9 percent decrease in the budget of the previous year.
The Government has proposed RS16,286 billion for the current expenditure in the FY26 budget, a decrease of 5.33pc of the previous year.
More to follow
