Finance issues ‘Budget Call Circular’

ISLAMABAD: Finance Division on Monday issued a “Budget Call Circular” to the federal ministries and divisions in order to initiate the process of preparation and presentation of the budget for the next fiscal year 2022-23 in the first week of June 2022.

As a first step, the Finance Division issued the “Budget Call Circular” to the principal accounting officers (PAOs) of ministries and divisions and sought submission of detailed budget, actual and revised estimates for the fiscal year 2020-21, and budget estimates for fiscal year 2022-23 relating to receipts, current and development expenditure.

The ministries and divisions have been asked to submit proposed budget estimates of current and development expenditure by 15th March 2022, whereas, budget review committee’ meetings will begin their process in 4th week of March, 2022.

The Budget Strategy Paper will be finalised on 15th April 2022 and indicative budget ceilings for current and development budget will be issued to the ministries and divisions in the 3rd week of April 2022.

The Annual Plan Coordination Committees (APCC) and National Economic Council (NEC) meeting’s tentative date has been set in April–May 2022 and completion of all budget documents, schedules, and summaries for the Cabinet would be prepared by the Finance Division by the end of May 2022.

The Finance Division would present the budget for the next fiscal year to the federal cabinet for approval before being presented by the finance minister in the Parliament in the first week of June 2022.

The Finance Division said that it will prepare Budget Strategy Paper and seek approval of the federal government in accordance with the section 3 of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, 2019.

Review and approval of budget estimates and additional demands – current and development – by the Demand Review Committee, if needed, the PAO will be invited to make presentations on their budget proposals to the committee (comprising the Finance Division, Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Division, and the Economic Affairs Division).

The Demand Review Committee would consider and approve additional expenditure (if any) of the ministries besides, it will discuss past performance, current year’s budgetary allocations and ceilings for the medium-term budgetary years and deliberations will focus on ‘outputs’ (services) to be delivered and policy priorities outlined by the federal government under the respective performance agreement.

Federal ministries and divisions will receive the confirmed indicative budget ceilings after approval of the Budget Strategy Paper by the Cabinet.

The ceilings for current budget are prepared by the Finance Division. One-line ceiling for development budget is issued by the Finance Division in favour of Planning Division.

However, demand-wise ceilings for development budget are prepared and issued by the Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Division.