A layperson’s guide to the federal budget 2018-19

As Miftah Ismail, now the finance minister, presents the federal budget 2018-19, which will be the last of the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, it is high time to make an attempt at uncovering the story hidden behind the numbers. The idea is to enable the reader to: (a) understand the main issues at play in the budget formulation process; (b) comprehend the fierce competition between different sectors vying for scarce resources; (c) read between the lines because the government mostly hides its inefficiency through jugglery, if not outright fudging, of figures; (d) evaluate the government’s revenue and expenditure priorities over the past five years, with a view to gauging which sectors have received a preferential treatment during this period; and (e) do a basic level analysis of the budget.