Twitter explodes with reactions to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s 2023-24 budget

Twitter was bursting with reactions to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s unveiling of the federal budget 2023-24 in the National Assembly on Friday.

Dar said Pakistan’s economy will target a growth rate of 3.5% in the coming fiscal year.

Slamming the previous government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Dar said Pakistan was the 24th largest economy in 2017, but declined to 47th place in 2022.

Twitter users, noting early reactions to Dar’s speech unveiling the budget, did not hold back in criticising the sorry state of affairs the country has been driven to. Here are a few that caught our eye.

Dar puts onus of ‘another IMF programme’ on new govt

Aren’t we all?

Whodunnit?

The trillion rupee question…

How did they fare so far?

Should we all smile then?

Mazel Tov!

Robin Hood(ed)!

The budget comes as the country is experiencing a dire economic crisis, with inflation running at a record 37.97% in May and a stalled International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme which has already led to an imposition of strict conditions set out by the international lender before it agrees to unlock $1.1 billion of funds, set to be released in November.

The incumbent government has imposed taxes, raised energy tariffs and scaled back subsidies in an attempt to persuade the IMF to unlock funding, and its central bank has also raised the key policy rate to a record 21%.

You don’t need AI to predict Dar’s budget speech. This is how it will likely go

In the meantime, the country barely has enough foreign currency reserves to cover one month of imports. At the unveiling of the Economic Survey on Thursday, Dar also indicated that said the new elected government should negotiate a fresh deal with the IMF.