ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Finance has issued a calendar for preparing and presenting the federal budget 2025-26 and asked all the ministries, divisions, departments and government entities to submit their expenditure demands by Feb 6 and anticipated savings during the current fiscal year.

According to the budget calendar and budget call circular issued to all the stakeholders, the federal budget is targeted for presentation in the national assembly in the first week of June as usual, in line with procedures laid down in Articles 78 to 88 of the Constitution and the Public Finance Act 2019.

The finance ministry has sought submission of estimates of receipts and expenditures from all provincial governments and federal ministries and departments for the next fiscal year and revised estimates for the current fiscal year by Feb 6 so that the budget document for FY26 could be finalised by the third week of May.

Under the plan, the finance ministry would present the mid-year review report on the budget before the national assembly in February. All stakeholders have been asked to provide actual data on FY24, revised estimates for FY25 and FY6 budget estimates, and other templates for current development besides revenues, etc.

Finance Ministry sets target for presenting mid-year review in Feb

The budget call letter 2025-26 is largely unchanged as last year but calls for a new set of information to identify and tag green (climate) components of revenues as required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other lenders. Instructions relating to gender budgeting have also been updated this year.

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Under the calendar, the MoF plans to seek the cabinet’s approval for the Budget Strategy Paper for 2025-28 by April 18 and then present it to the parliament for proposals and discussions. The MoF would issue indicative budget ceilings for the current and development budget by April 21. The meeting of the Annual Planning Coordination Committee (APCC) will be called in the first week of May to recommend the Public Sector Development Programme to the National Economic Council (NEC) for approval in the second week of May.

The notification required all the stakeholders to ensure the submission of receipts and current and development expenditure estimates to the Budget Wing of the Finance Division before February 6 by the respective Principal Accounting Officers (PAOs). The remaining information should follow the schedule in the budget calendar.

All these entities must also provide the actual foreign exchange budget for FY24, revised estimates for FY25, and budget estimates for FY26 based on the specific instructions and general guidelines.

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 expenditures, if any, of the ministries and would also 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.

The demand-wise ceilings for the development budget are prepared and issued by the Ministry of Planning and Development, which would then arrange meetings of the APCC and NEC to approve the annual plan envisaging macroeconomic targets and development budgets. The budget presentation to the federal cabinet and the parliament has been targeted not to go beyond the first week of June.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2025