Islamabad: New austerity measures have been announced to cut costs.
Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar approved new measures to promote fiscal austerity in the country and imposed a ban on new posts and heavy purchases, but these measures do not seem to yield substantial results as the government is unable to meet its income. The surplus is only spent on interest payments.
Under the new measures, no new posts will be created for all development works during the new financial year. Usually these initiatives are initiated at the beginning of the financial year, but this announcement by the caretaker Prime Minister has been made at a time when the financial year is just four months away.
Apart from this, the caretaker prime minister has imposed a ban on the purchase of new machinery during the current fiscal year, however, according to the official announcement, the machines related to the medical sector will be exempted from this ban, except for ambulances, for government schools. A ban has also been imposed on the purchase of all luxurious and expensive vehicles, except for buses, cleaning vehicles, tractors, fire fighting vehicles.
It should be noted that for the current May year, the National Assembly had approved a budget of 14 trillion 40 billion rupees, of which there was a deficit of 7 trillion 50 billion rupees. 50 billion rupees, the main reason for which is the increase in the interest rate on debt repayment.
Interestingly, according to the announcement issued by the Ministry of Finance, the Caretaker Prime Minister, while approving these measures for austerity, has also set up a committee related to it, which will relax them as per the need.
The caretaker Finance Minister has been appointed to this committee while the members include Secretary Finance, Secretary Planning, Secretary Home, Special Secretary to the Cabinet and Additional Secretary Finance.
