Finance Minister Aurangzeb to present budget for FY2026-27 on June 12
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb will present the federal budget for the next fiscal year (FY26โ27) in the National Assembly on June 12, an adviser to the minister has confirmed. Adviser to the Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad shared the revised budget schedule in a post on X. He added that the Pakistan Economic Survey for the outgoing FY2025โ26 would be launched at 2:20pm on Thursday by Aurangzeb. Budget sessions of the National Assembly and Senate have already been summoned by President Asif Ali Zardari. The National Economic Council (NEC), the highest economic decision-making forum of the federation, met earlier on Wednesday to finalise federal and provincial development plans ahead of the budget presentation. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who chaired the meeting, said the Centre held consultations with the provinces on all matters โwith extreme seriousness, and we made decisions in the best interest of Pakistanโ. The NEC finally met after being delayed three times, as negotiations had continued over the freezing of provincial shares in the federal divisible pool under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award. The budget presentation in the parliament had earlier been set for June 10. The federal government, its coalition partners and provincial governments had been struggling to reach a consensus over the Centreโs demand for more than Rs1 trillion for strategic needs. However, the ruling PML-N and its major ally, the PPP, on Monday reached a consensus on the broad framework of the federal budget. They reached a broad agreement on cutting development and other expenditures at all tiers of the federation to cover around Rs800 billion revenue shortfall this year and jointly create similar, but higher, fiscal space next year for additional โstrategic needsโ. Under the agreement, provincial shares from the federal divisible pool would stay frozen at the current fiscal yearโs position. Any increase in the targeted revenue next year on top of the Federal Board of Revenueโs (FBR) collection in the current year would be retained by the Centre, informed sources said. The sources said the additional amount being discussed for next year to be given up by the provinces was not fixed but dynamic, depending on FBR revenue collection, and could range anywhere between Rs1.3tr and Rs1.7tr. Interestingly, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were not part of the deal so far. Under tight International Monetary Fund (IMF) oversight, the government has trimmed allocations for most sectors in the next federal development programme to create additional fiscal space for the PML-Nโs trademark national highways, a new Rs87 billion share for coalition partners and a Rs70bn allocation for ruling party lawmakersโ schemes. Yet, the government has unveiled a record national development programme of Rs4.715tr. The overall deveยญlยญopment portfolio comprises the largest share of provincial annual development plans (ADPs) at Rs3.138tr (up 9.6pc), followed by the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of Rs1.126tr, up 12.6pc from the current year, and Rs451bn from state-owned enterprises (SOEs), up 27pc from Rs355bn in the current fiscal year. PM Shehbaz has said that the government was taking measures to bring the informal economy into the tax net. The government last week unveiled the โFixed Tax Asaan Schemeโ to bring small traders and shopkeepers into the tax net, with an annual turnover of up to Rs200 million. The government is also considering relaxing the remittance cap in the upcoming budget as overseas Pakistanis in several countries face difficulties in protecting their investments and liquid assets abroad, according to sources in the financial industry.
