Pakistan Economic Survey 2011-12 Report

Pakistan got independence in 1947. The inherited economy was handicapped in every walk of life. The economic conditions, the social set up, the industrial base, the agricultural sector and the human resource conditions were miserably poor and deplorable. And in the present era in 21^st century we can undoubtedly observe the big need on the part of the government to make interference in the form of economic planning. According to previous economic survey 2010-2011 the budget was accorded a budget of rich as it has done nothing to change the lot of the poor. And as a result the rich became richer and poor remains poor making the issue of inequalities more acute. This year Pakistan Economic Survey 2011-2012 has been put forward by the Finance Minister Hafiz Sheikh. Let’s have a brief look over some of the salient characteristics involved in the new economic survey.

The economic survey of Pakistan 2011-2012 highlights all the major sectors of the economy in simple and easy way so that even an ordinary and illiterate person can fully understand it. On the basis of detail discussion by Hafiz Sheikh the maximum limit of Pakistan economy is expected to be $210.8 billion or approximately Rs18.1 trillion which is certainly a huge amount. In his speech he emphasized the importance of Gross Domestic Product by saying that the gross domestic product may reaches at the limit of 0.1%to 0.2% in case the annual statistics is only be obtainable after June. In his report he further concluded that after going through such harsh circumstances prevailing in the country they have managed to minimize lending from the central bank and have imposed the tax net which will definitely increases the growth of economy by 2.4%. The agricultural production has been given special significance as there growth rate has been immensely increased 1.2% due to good weather conditions, the rise in supply price, adequate and timely supply of inputs including fertilizers, better seeds, pesticides and timely winter rains for wheat.

However, manufacturing castor increases by 3% and services sector by 4.1%. Hafiz Sheikh also revealed out the major deficiency of Government in oil prices. Government was supposed to sell the price of per barrel at 75$ but at the end of the year the amount of per barrel appears to be $125. And in this statement there is no doubt that there was certainly the inefficiency and corruption of high officials behind such bribery. In addition to all this due to the lack of oil production in the country the government was not able to produce maximum oil for the electricity generation due to which the whole country has to undergo from the shortage of electricity.

On the other hand the Minister of Electricity demanded for Rs 25 billion for provided the increases amount of electricity and fulfilling the oil requirements. After the brief review Hafiz Sheikh put forward his own opinion that the government has offered Rs 500 billion to the electricity sector for increasing the importance of industrial sector and to save the people of Pakistan from the future increasing prices of electricity due to which the petroleum rates might also high-fly. He further says that investment is the key determinant of growth. It is the only sector in Pakistan from which it is expected a lot but as unfortunately as it sounds investment sector was also unable to manage the country economy just because of the electricity shortage, high interest rates and lack of security planning. When we talk about the size of investment sector in economy than it has decreased from last year 15.4% to 13.4% but it has surely succeeded in gaining maximum Rs 2.5 trillion which is about Rs 300 billion more as compare to last year. Moreover, this year the national income percentage has been at its horrible level.

National income is one of the prime indicators for the developments of the country. Its total percentage in the budget determines the average level of standard of living but the level of national income was expected to still at 5.7% or Rs 1.02 trillion but unfortunately the level of budget deficit in 2011-2012 is about 6.3% and the total spending is Rs 181 billion. In all such circumstances the government has rented Rs 544 billion which is more than last year borrowings of Rs 114 billion. In addition to all that the Federal Bureau of Revenue was supposed to collect Rs 1.58 billion in taxes which should be at least Rs 272 billion at the end of this month. He further concluded that export sector has been aiming much high for the economic development of the country and its economy percentage will keep on increasing and in case we need to make our economic sector equal we need to further expand the export sector in western and European countries.

Apart from all that according to a private television channel GEO NEWS the government was not succeeded in achieving the goals in their economic survey. When a single copy of economic survey was handed over to every news channel than in such cases the GEO NEWS came forward with their own judgment. In their opinion all the appropriate estimated expansion targets of agriculture sector, industrial sector and other services sector has been mentioned but they are not given the required importance and as a result they are missed when we come from outside the budget. The present economic growth is still running at 3.7% percent as against this the estimated level was 4.2%. About Rs 47 billion has been spend on the external debt financing whereas Rs 33 billion was spend in the last year. So the question arises that why the country is spending more amount on such financing as these finances have been solved out with much lower charges in the previous year?

But in all these situations such a budget should be presented which should relieve down the people from the future problems. People usually wish for such budget which should also be accorded according to their needs and wants. They need such an annual budget which should level up the difference between the rich and poor. And most importantly the salaries and pension of government employees must be increases although they will not be satisfied from this but this will definitely give them enough relief.

Already the interest rates cutes have been instituted in a bid to boost industry and the maximum tariff rate has been cut as well. As government continues to remain under pressure to perform for both the multilateral and bilateral donors, reform is likely to be pushed for the country. And the hope is that this will help set direction for the future. On the whole the final budget of 2011-2012 will be presented to national assembly on 1^st June for the approval. Let’s hope that this year the budget would be dedicated to the poor community. Because it’s very important for the development and growth of Pakistan that economy should be strong. It’s only possible if Pakistani government introduce federal budget effectively and consider all departments carefully.