Dawn TV Parliament Reporter +Daily Dawn
Islamabad: The federal government cut 250 billion in the development budget even before the approval of the federal budget for the next financial year 2024-25.
In this regard, Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal confirmed the cut of 250 billion rupees in the federal development program and said that the government is facing strict conditions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the new program.
Ahsan Iqbal said that to meet the deficit, the ax had to fall somewhere and it has fallen on the development budget. Competing with, the PSDP of Rs 1400 billion has now reduced to Rs 1150 billion.
He said that the economic situation is such that if there was any government, there would be no choices, resource mobilization has to be done to deal with the economic problems.
The federal planning minister said that the purpose of sacrificing the development budget is to save the people and agriculture from more taxes, adding that the development budget can be increased by reviewing the next financial year.
