Pakistan’s federal budgets have repeatedly failed to match official revenue and spending projections in the past five fiscal years i.e. FY21 to FY25, the Karachi School of Business and Leadership (KSBL) wrote in a report.
Actual revenue collections deviated from original budget estimates by an average of 18.2 percent, while expenditure differed by 23.9 percent over the period.
Even after mid-year revisions, final outcomes still varied from revised estimates by 11.2 percent on the revenue side and 10.4 percent on expenditure.
Original budget estimates remain the most important benchmark because they represent the government’s initial fiscal commitments to citizens, businesses and investors.
Using a deviation-based grading system, the scorecard found that a big number of budget heads fell into the weakest performance category.
Revenue projections performed particularly poorly.
The recurring gap between budget estimates and actual outcomes weakens the budget’s role as a reliable fiscal roadmap and undermines confidence in public financial planning, the report added.