President Dr Arif Alvi has given his approval for the Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2023, also known as the mini-budget, under Article 75 of the Constitution, which requires the president to assent to a bill presented to him within 10 days.

National Assembly had passed the Rs170 billion mini-budget with some modifications, which will have an annual impact of about Rs550 billion.

The budget’s approval has brought Pakistan closer to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but at the cost of pushing people deeper into the poverty trap.

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The majority of the taxation measures were implemented, although the president had not given his assent when the National Assembly passed the bill.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar admitted during his wind-up speech that inflation was unbearable for the people and blamed the maladministration of the previous government of former prime minister Imran Khan.

Dar also admitted that the news stories about Rs675 billion to Rs700 billion taxes were not untrue and the IMF had demanded those measures, which the government did not accept. Dar added that almost all major issues with the IMF had been sorted out, and Pakistan is now very near to the staff-level agreement.