Rs 7.35 trillion charged expenditure placed

A total of Rs 7.35 trillion charged expenditure including 6.2 trillion repayment of domestic debt was presented in the National Assembly on Friday for discussion.
Charged expenditures presented in the lower house of the Parliament are as follows: Servicing of Domestic Debt Rs 714.7 billion, foreign loans repayment Rs 273.18 billion, servicing of foreign debt Rs 76.31 billion, repayment of Short Term Foreign Credits Rs 36.23 billion, Audit Rs 2.303 billion, charged expenditure of election Rs 1.39 billion, charged expenditure of Supreme Court Rs 986.56 million, Islamabad High Court Rs 212.2 million, staff, household and allowances of the President Rs 482.64 million, Wafaqi Mohtasib Rs 273.28 and charged expenditure of Federal Tax Ombudsman Rs 90.1 million.
Similarly charged expenditures on external development loans and advances by the federal government is Rs 49.64 billion, Pakistan Railways Rs 9.03 billion, grant-in-aid and miscellaneous adjustments between the federal and provincial governments Rs 9 billion, superannuation allowances and pensions Rs 2.05 billion, National Assembly Rs 749.12 million, the Senate Rs 571.9 million, other expenditure of foreign affairs division Rs 340 million, Civil Works Rs 13.4 million and charged expenditure of Pakistan Post Office department Rs 130 million.
While taking part in discussion on charged expenditure, Zahid Hamid of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said that there was a need to amend the Act of Fiscal Responsibility and Public Debt Limitation to determine the value of GDP on the base of real price and not on market prices.
He maintained that the huge amount of accumulating debt was negatively affecting the growth of GDP. He added that according to the Economic Survey total debt would cross Rs 10 trillion mark in the near future and payments to service the debt would increase by 343 percent. He said during the last four years repayment of domestic debt has risen by 200 percent. The PML-N leader emphasised the need to increase revenue through taxes and minimise non-development expenditures. He said that the government should remove black holes in civil works enterprises and adopt simplicity in an effort to reduce its non-development expenditures.
Asia Nasir, a minority member from Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) stated that discussion on charged expenditures was meaningless because they were not subject to voting. She pointed out that foreign loans and domestic debt, the major component of debt, were included in charged expenditures. She urged the government to take steps to stop theft and embezzlement in civil works. Speaker National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza concurred with Asia Nasir and stated that according to the Constitution members could only discuss charged expenditures in the House and no voting was allowed.