2018–19 Pakistan federal budget

The Federal budget 2018–19 is the federal budget of Pakistan for the fiscal year beginning from 1 July 2018 and ending on 30 June 2019.[1] The budget was presented by finance minister Miftah Ismail on 28 April 2018, just months before the general elections scheduled in the country for the next government.[1]

2018–19 (2018–19) Federal Budget

Presented	28 April 2018
Parliament	National Assembly of Pakistan
Party	Pakistan Muslim League (N)
Finance minister	Miftah Ismail
Treasurer	Ministry of Finance
Total revenue	Rs. 5.159 trillion (US$18 billion)
Total expenditures	Rs. 5.932 trillion (US$21 billion)
Debt payment	Rs. 2.221 trillion (US$7.7 billion)
Deficit	4.9%
Website	Budget Brief
‹ 2017–18 2019–20 ›

The budget announced several measures; including an allocation Rs. 1,100 billion for defence expenditures; a ten percent hike in salaries and pensions of civil and military employees; a health tax enforced on tobacco and import taxes on cell phones; around Rs. 2.22 trillion were to be used for debt servicing; changes were made to the progressive taxation system, with no taxes to be deducted on people with annual incomes of up to Rs. 400,000; Rs. 25 billion were allocated for the health and medical sector under the Public Sector Development Programme, which would include several new projects;[1] tax cuts were announced for the agriculture and dairy farming sectors; another Rs. 2.6 billion were announced for the National Accountability Bureau, which include employee expenses; all provinces were to get a total of Rs. 2.59 trillion as part of their share in the federal revenues; Rs. 18.2 billion would be spent on the fencing of the Afghanistan–Pakistan barrier on the border;[1] Rs. 130 billion worth of additional levies were slapped on petroleum products;[1] and finally, smaller expenses were announced for setting up a media development and television monitoring system. The budgets for the President and Prime Ministerial residences, borne out of tax-payers funds, had also risen notably.[1]