• Uniform criterion not applied for comparison in the budget documents – at times, budget estimates for the ongoing fiscal year have been used; while, at others, revised estimates have been used.
• The salaries and pensions of federal government employees increased by only 7.5%. This is in stark contrast to the previous budgets when this increase ranged between 10% and 20%.
• Subsidies that aim at helping the poorest of the poor reduced from Rs203 billion to Rs138 billion.
• The estimates of current expenditure and revenue receipts are ambitious to say the least, as evident from the experience of the last few years. In the case of current expenditure, the estimate for FY 2015-16 (Rs3,482 billion) is almost the same as the revised estimates for the ongoing fiscal year (Rs3,481 billion). This also speaks volume for the wishful thinking of the policymakers considering that current expenditure for the first three quarters of the ongoing fiscal year stood at Rs3,199 billion.
• The resource availability estimates are not realistic and appear to be an attempt to hide the actual budget deficit.
• Defence spending increased from Rs700 billion to Rs780 billion despite the fact that pensions of armed forces personnel have been included in the civilian budget and Rs45 billion have been separately earmarked for Operation Zarb-e-Azb.
• Focus on infrastructure projects at the cost of social sector projects.
• Grant of Rs20 billion to cater to development projects proposed by parliamentarians that are often lost in corruption.
• The budget deficit of Rs1,328 seems unrealistic considering that the figure for the same stood at Rs1.049 billion after first three quarters of the ongoing fiscal year.
• The estimate of privatisation proceeds drastically reduced showing lack of government resolve. –Mustafa Nazir Ahmed