Budget 2020-21

LETTER: The government has announced the budget for fiscal year 2020-21. Preparing a 'balanced' budget in the midst of coronavirus epidemic which has already inflicted a Rs 3 trillion loss on country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or economy was no joke. While the government must be praised for setting a modest but realistic growth target for the next fiscal year, the revenue collection target does not appear to be highly unrealistic. It's in fact is more unrealistic than what was set for fiscal year 2019-20. How could any government generate this amount of taxes (Rs 4.93 trillion) in the absence of a robust economic activity.

The reopening of certain sectors of economy will not lead to creating an environment in which government will be able to meet its tax collection target.

NAQI ZAFAR (KARACHI)