PU organizes lecture on The Federal Budget 2014-15 and Pakistan’s Economic Prospects

Lahore: Senior analyst Prof. Dr. Aqdas Ali Kazmi has said the prospects of Pakistan’s economic survival are contingent upon two conditions namely doubling the tax-GDP ratio and completely over-hauling the expenditure priorities.

He was addressing a seminar on “The Federal Budget 2014-15 and Pakistan’s Economic Prospects” arranged by Punjab University Pakistan Study Centre. \

Dean Faculty of Arts and Humanities Prof. Dr. Massarrat Abid, faculty members and a large number of students were present on the occasion.

Addressing the seminar, he said the total size of the budget of about Rs. 4.0 trillion, 13.6 percent of GDP, indicated a squeezed fiscal space due to abysmally low tax effort at 9.7 percent of GDP.

He said a small fraction was left for a host of social and economic services, civil administration, subsidies and overall development. He said that the government should keep health, education, industry, energy and water resources on priority.

In her presidential address Dr. Massarrat Abid highlighted the major problems Pakistan had been facing for last several decades, emphasizing on the country’s imbalance in resources and her expenditures. She said the culture of tax evasion and the growing debt needed to be dealt with on top priority basis by the leadership.

The lecture was followed by a question-answer session shared by the faculty as well as the students of the Pakistan Study Centre.