Rs198b Discrepancy Surfaces in Federal Accounts, Budget Deficit Hits Highest-ever of Rs5.6 Trillion

Pakistan Government has revised upward the last fiscal year’s federal budget deficit to over Rs5.6 trillion – an alarming 51% rise over the preceding year – after nearly Rs200 billion statistical discrepancy surfaced in the accounts.

Finance ministry was surprised by the Discrepancy, just a week ago, which had estimated Rs5.5 trillion budget deficit.

The Rs5.61 trillion gap between the federal income and expenditures was the highest ever in the country’s history.

The ministry released the fiscal operations summary on Friday, showing that the federal budget deficit rose to Rs5.61 trillion – 8.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) – in fiscal year 2021-22 that ended on June 30, against a target of just under Rs4.4 trillion.