By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry on Thursday dismissed as “misleading” and “factually incorrect” a media report that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had transferred responsibility for preparing the federal budget to Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.
The clarification came hours after The Express Tribune reported that the government had effectively sidelined the Finance Division after finding its initial budget work unsatisfactory. The newspaper said Sharif had formed a committee headed by Dar to review, analyse and present tax policy proposals prepared by the Tax Policy Office under the Finance Division. It cited an official notification stating that the panel would hold final responsibility for deciding roughly Rs215 billion to Rs230 billion in new taxes and any tax relief measures.
A separate committee led by Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema would handle enforcement measures, the report said. The changes suggested that, “for all practical purposes,” budget-making responsibility had moved away from Q Block, the seat of the finance minister, The Express Tribune added.
In a strongly worded statement, the Finance Ministry rejected the story’s framing outright. “The Ministry of Finance strongly rejects the misleading and speculative impression created by The Express Tribune story titled ‘PM hands budget-making to Dar,’ published on May 14, 2026,” it said. The article “incorrectly portrays the constitution of a high-level review committee by the prime minister as a ‘handover’ of the budget-making process from the Finance Division or as a ‘sidelining’ of the finance minister,” the ministry added. “This interpretation is factually incorrect, misleading and does not reflect the actual mandate or functioning of the committee.”
The panel’s sole task, the statement continued, is to review and analyse specific tax policy proposals already prepared by the Tax Policy Office for the upcoming budget. Such consultative and inter-ministerial review mechanisms are “neither unusual nor extraordinary,” particularly given the significant economic, political and public implications of fiscal measures, it said.
As head of government, Sharif “is fully within his constitutional and administrative authority to seek broader input from relevant cabinet members before finalisation of tax proposals that may impact businesses, inflation, investment climate and the wider economy,” the ministry said. At no stage has the budget-making process been shifted away from the Ministry of Finance or the Finance Division, it emphasized.
Preparation of the federal budget — including the macroeconomic framework, fiscal strategy, expenditure planning, IMF engagement and overall coordination — “continues to be undertaken by the Ministry of Finance under the leadership of the finance minister,” the statement said. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is himself a member of Dar’s committee and “continues to lead Pakistan’s engagement with the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions on all budgetary and macroeconomic matters.”
A parallel committee on enforcement measures, led by Cheema, was formed only “to refine and strengthen revenue administration and enforcement proposals in consultation with relevant stakeholders,” the ministry added. “Such coordination mechanisms are a normal feature of governance and fiscal management.”
The federal budget remains “a collective constitutional and cabinet-driven exercise carried out under the leadership of the prime minister with the Ministry of Finance playing its central and mandated institutional role,” the statement concluded. It urged the media to “avoid speculative interpretations and to report institutional processes with accuracy, context and due professional responsibility.”
Later on Thursday, Dar chaired the first meeting of the newly formed tax policy committee. A statement from his office said the group reviewed progress on various proposals and “emphasised the need for balanced, growth-oriented measures aimed at broadening the tax base, enhancing revenue generation, and promoting investment and economic growth.” It reiterated the priority of safeguarding compliant taxpayers from any additional burden.
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