Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Owing to the government’s efforts, the fiscal deficit during the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year has been contained at 3.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “Despite higher mark-up payments and COVID-related expenditures, the fiscal sector continues to perform better as a result of the government’s efforts to maintain fiscal discipline,” says Monthly Economic Update and Outlook for April 2021.
According to the report the first eight months of the current fiscal year witnessed an increase of 9.2 percent in net federal revenue receipts to reach Rs.2188 billion as compared to Rs.2003 billion last year.
The total expenditures grew by 1.3 percent to Rs.4132 billion during July-February, FY2021 as compared to Rs.4079 billion last year.
“Thus the fiscal deficit has been contained to 3.5 percent of GDP during July-February, FY2021,” the report adds.
On the other hand, the primary balance posted a surplus of Rs.286 billion during July-February, FY2021 as against the balance of Rs.104 billion last year.
Meanwhile, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had been able to achieve double-digit growth in the first nine months of the current fiscal year and surpassed the target by more than 100 billion.
The provisional net collection grew by 10.9 percent to Rs.3395 billion during July-March, FY2021 against the collection of Rs.3060 billion last year.
Within the total, domestic tax collection grew by 10.7 percent, of which direct tax collection grew by 9.1 percent, sales tax 13.2 percent and Federal Excise Duty (FED) by 2.8 percent.
In March 2021 alone, the provisional net collection increased by 49.4 percent to Rs.481 billion as compared to the collection of Rs.322 billion in March 2020. For the month of March, the provisional net collection exceeded the target by Rs.114 billion. On Monetary side, during July 1st to April 2, FY2021, Money Supply (M2) posted growth of 7.1 percent (Rs 1,475.1 billion) as compared to growth of 8.4 percent (Rs 1,485.3 billion last year).
Within Money Supply, Net Foreign Assets (NFA) of the banking system witnessed an expansion of Rs 695.3 billion against Rs 745.2 billion last year. On the other hand, Net Domestic Assets (NDA) increased by Rs 779.8 billion compared to Rs 740.1 billion last year.
The private sector credit posted an expansion of Rs 444.5 billion as compared to Rs 332.8 billion last year which can be considered a healthy sign for economic activities. Within loans to private sector business, working capital loans increased by Rs 120.4 billion during July.
