President Alvi formally approves Finance Bill 2020-21

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday formally approved the Finance Bill 2020-21 under Article 75 of the Constitution.

Alvi gave his approval to the Finance Bill 2020-21 after it was passed by the National Assembly, a press release issued by the President House read.

A day prior, the NA had approved the federal budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021 (FY20-21) despite the Opposition's vow to not let it sail through the House. On June 12, Industries and Production Minister Hammad Azhar had presented a Rs7.14-trillion budget.

The government benches were successful in getting the Finance Bill 2020 approved to give effect to the financial proposals. The House, however, rejected the amendments proposed by the Opposition in the bill.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had also attended the session.

'Enemy of the people'

A day prior, the Opposition had agreed to build a united front against the budget and made fiery speeches on the national issues in the session. Apart from protesting the budget, its lawmakers have also decided to demand PM Imran's resignation.

Senior opposition leaders from the PPP, PML-N, and the JUI-F had earlier described it as an "enemy of the people". Reacting to the budget, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said it would cause inflation and unemployment to rise.

Erstwhile government ally BNP-M leader Akhtar Mengal had also announced his party's move to break alliance with the ruling coalition, which caused a momentary hurdle for the government by depleting its numbers in the House.

Salient Features of Budget 2020-21

• The total size of Budget 2020-21 is Rs 7,136 billion, 11% lower than the size of budget in 2019-20.
• The resource availability during 2020-21 has been estimated at Rs6,314.9 billion against Rs4,917.2 billion in the budget estimates of 2019-20.
• The net revenue receipts for 2020-21 have been estimated at Rs3,699.5 billion indicating an increase of 6.7% over the budget estimates of 2019-20
• The provincial share in federal taxes is estimated at Rs2,873.7 billion during 2020-21, which is 11.7% lower than the budget estimates for 2019-20.
• The net capital receipts for 2020-21 have been estimated at Rs1,463.2 billion against the budget estimates of Rs831.7 billion in 2019-20 reflecting an increase of 75.93%.
• The external receipts in 2020-21 are estimated at Rs2,222.9 billion. This shows an decrease of 26.7% over the budget estimates for 2019-20.
• The development expenditure outside PSDP has been estimated at Rs70.0 billion in the budget 2020-21.
• The size of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2020-21 is Rs 1,324 billion. Out of this, Rs 676 billion has been allocated to provinces.
• Federal PSDP has been estimated at Rs650 billion, out of which Rs418.7 billion are for Federal Ministries/Divisions, Rs 100.4 billion for Corporations, Rs3 billion for Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), and Rs70 billion for COVID responsive and Other Natural Calamities Program