Govt presented balance budget in present circumstances: Omar Ayub

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Petroleum Omar Ayub Khan on Friday said the government has presented balance budget in present circumstances of the country because the COVID-19 badly effected on the national economy.

Talking to a private TV channel, he said big economic powers of the world had fluctuated due to coronavirus so Pakistan was already facing difficulties in its economy and the government was making efforts to stablise it.

He said unfortunately the government did not increase in the salaries and pension of the government employees in the budget of 2020-21 due to present situation of coronavirus.

The minister said wheel of those industries which were interlinked with agriculture and constructions would be run after the budget and the government would achieve target of tax collection through it, adding the government could have achieved its tax collection target if the coronavirus pandemic did not accrue.

He said the government would extend tax net through bringing reforms in the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and introducing modern technology in the country.

Replying to a question, he said the present government had reduced prices of many things including oil and it paid Rs. 5,000 billion in the shape of loans which had taken during the previous government.

The previous government of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) did not increase exports and it had controlled dollar price as artificially which made main reason of inflation in the country.

He said the government would bring visible improvement in different sectors of life and it had reduced its expenditures through adopting austerity measures.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) also decreased fiscal deficit and it would bring improvement in other areas in coming days, he added.