Pakistan will spend $4.5 billion or Rupees 275 billion on defense, a close to nine percent increase over last year, in the new fiscal starting from July 1, Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub said while unfolding the federal budget for 2007-08 year in the National Assembly (Lower House of Parliament) Saturday evening. The total outlay of the budget is $26.66 billion or Rs1.599 trillion. This size is 21.7 percent higher than the size of the previous year. Omar Ayub said in his budget speech that the budget presents collective will of the people of Pakistan and all sections of society. "We have achieved target in all sectors of economy including agriculture, industries, services etc The Foreign Direct Investment in the outgoing year touched $6 billion. The budge deficit would be 4% of GDP., " the minister noted. He said the government brought loans down to 53% of GDP, adding that all foreign loans will be spent on the welfare of the poor.
