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Pak to slash defence budget at 3.3 per cent of the GDP
Islamabad, June 03: With its economy projected to grow around 5.1 per cent, Pakistan has hinted that it planned to allocate 3.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for defence spending in this year`s budget to be submitted on June 7.
Islamabad, June 03: With its economy projected to
grow around 5.1 per cent, Pakistan has hinted that it planned
to allocate 3.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
for defence spending in this year's budget to be submitted on
June 7.
Senior officials of Pakistan's finance ministry said
that the new budget would reduce the spending on defence in
terms of the percentage of GDP even though it could amount to
a marginal increase as the GDP itself was set to grow at a far
higher rate than the expected levels due to buoyancy of the
economy.
Pakistan on record reduced the defence budget 3.6 per cent of the GDP around Rs 146 billion in 2002-03, from Rs 151.7 billion or 4.1 per cent of GDP in 2001-02. The defence outlays were brought down from the highs of 6.3 per cent of GDP in early 1990s', the officials were quoted as saying in the local daily 'The News' today. There was a possibility that the size of the defence budget during the next fiscal year would remain more or less the same, which in real terms implies a reduction, as a percentage of GDP.
The new budget, which would be the first by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali government would fix four per cent as the deficit target.
Uncertainty, however, loomed over the presentation of the budget in the national assembly as opposition parties said they would continue their agitation to shut parliament and would not allow the government to present the budget.
Bureau Report
Pakistan on record reduced the defence budget 3.6 per cent of the GDP around Rs 146 billion in 2002-03, from Rs 151.7 billion or 4.1 per cent of GDP in 2001-02. The defence outlays were brought down from the highs of 6.3 per cent of GDP in early 1990s', the officials were quoted as saying in the local daily 'The News' today. There was a possibility that the size of the defence budget during the next fiscal year would remain more or less the same, which in real terms implies a reduction, as a percentage of GDP.
The new budget, which would be the first by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali government would fix four per cent as the deficit target.
Uncertainty, however, loomed over the presentation of the budget in the national assembly as opposition parties said they would continue their agitation to shut parliament and would not allow the government to present the budget.
Bureau Report