Pakistani government presents 14 Trillion Rupees budget for FY 2023-2024

Morning! All the times we said we prefer summers? Yeaah, we’ll take that back..🌡️🔥☀️

In this week’s edition:

🦹🏻‍♂️ Pakistan got some competition

🧾 Budgeting with PKR 14 Trillion

🍎 Apple has its eyes on something

😪 No good times in sight for telcos

- The Itla Squad 💼

Business

Global 🌎️

Turns out Pakistan isn’t the only one that can mishandle $$ funds..

In what has been described as the "great grift" in American history, an analysis by the Associated Press has uncovered staggering potential fraud in excess of $280 billion, alongside an additional $123 billion that was either wasted or misspent from the federal COVID-19 relief aid funds.

What happened? Criminals exploited the aid intended for pandemic response and economic stabilization. The US government's lack of oversight and easy access to a bottomless money pit made this grand theft a piece of cake. the analysis revealed.

How much money are we talking about? Before leaving office, Trump greenlit emergency aid measures of $3.2 trillion, and Biden's American Rescue Plan added another $1.9 trillion. That's a whopping $5.2 trillion, with a fifth of it still awaiting distribution.

Who was given the $$? Small Business Administration (SBA) but it turns out SBA was too small to take on such a huge role. The usually low-profile SBA had a rough time managing relief efforts. They were rushing to hand out cash to help struggling businesses and employees, but the haste led to dropped guardrails in the processes.

Looking ahead: The Biden administration has increased the timeframe during which legal action can be taken against individuals involved in fraudulent activities related to the pandemic.

TLDR: An analysis uncovers potential $280B fraud and $123B wasted from US COVID-19 relief funds. Criminals exploited oversight issues. Small Business Administration faced challenges. Biden extends legal action timeframe for pandemic fraud.

What else is new in news

✶ According to data from consumer intelligence database NielsenIQ, chocolate prices have increased by 14% in the last year. Market experts predict that prices will continue to rise due to limited cocoa supplies, as cocoa is a crucial ingredient in chocolate.

Local 🇵🇰

How to make a budget with 14 trillion rupees

Parliament was buzzing last week as the Pakistani government rolled out its annual budget for the fiscal year 2023-2024 - 14 trillion rupees (approximately $50.4 billion).

Winners:

• Agriculture: Withdrawal of all duties and taxes on imported seeds, combined harvesters, dryers, and rice planters

• Defense: 1.8 billion rupees for defense, a 15.4% increase

• Journalists and artists: Health insurance card for working journalists and artists

• Govt employees: A 35% pay increase for lower-level government employees and a 30% pay increase for officers

Losers:

• If you are earning => Rs. 150 million: Introduction of three new income levels with varying ‘super’ tax rates for individuals earning over Rs150 million.

• Textile: Rate of GST on e-integrated textile retailers up by 3%

How are we feeling about this? Opinions on the budget by experts are mixed.

👍 Certain aspects like focus on agriculture, IT, and IT-enabled exports (more on that later), and reduction in minimum tax for listed companies have been appreciated.

👎 Some are worried that it doesn't tackle important issues such as expanding the tax net, investing in education and human development, and creating a favorable business environment.

All in all, people are keeping a close eye on how the budget will affect the economy and meet IMF requirements.

TLDR: Pakistan's annual budget for 2023-2024 is 14 trillion rupees ($50.4 billion). Highlights include pay raises for government employees, support for agriculture, increased defense spending, and health insurance for journalists and artists. Opinions on the budget are mixed, with concerns about neglecting tax expansion and education.

News Flash

✶ As anticipated, Pakistan's central bank has decided to keep the benchmark policy rate unchanged at a record high of 21%, in line with market expectations. The bank believes that this rate is appropriate given the fact that inflation hit its highest point at 38% in May and is expected to gradually ease down from June onwards.

Tech

Global 🌎️

After iPod and iPhone, Apple is onto something new..

At the much-anticipated Met-gala of the tech world aka Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2023, the company made waves by revealing their latest operating system called Vision Pro. Apple promoted the device as suitable for work and play, including streaming video, gaming, and business meetings.

• The Vision Pro headset is priced at $3,499 (PKR 10 lacs) and resembles a pair of aluminum ski goggles, making it look super-flattering..

• Visual pass-through technology allows users to see the real-time room environment while wearing the headset.

• It offers an augmented reality experience in a VR head-box form factor and uses gesture controls from fingers and eye movements instead of hand controllers.

• It features a physical dial to adjust the amount of digital screen occupying the user's vision.

• It offers a unique feature called VisionOS scans, which creates a deep fake of the user's face as a 3D avatar for virtual presence during video calls.

• The avatar resembles a photorealistic version of the user's Memoji, sometimes described as both intriguing and horrifying.

• Apple will remain faithful to their not-so-amazing battery life in products as the battery lasts for only two hours.

TLDR: Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2023 unveiled vision pro, their new operating system. The star was the $3,499 Vision Pro headset resembling ski goggles, offering augmented reality and gesture controls. VisionOS scans to create 3D avatars for virtual video presence. Disappointingly, the headset's battery lasts only two hours.

What else is new in news

✶In response to growing concerns about AI, U.S. senators have unveiled two bipartisan bills—one requiring transparency in government's use of AI for human interactions, and another establishing an office to ensure the country's dominance in AI as compared to other countries (tsk tsk China 👀)

Local 🇵🇰 

Telcos to struggle..again

Ishaq Dar brought some "IT" factor to the table some major tax relief measures in the new budget for the fiscal year 2023-24.

• IT and IT-enabled service providers can bring in software and hardware worth 1% of their exports tax-free, up to $50,000 per year. The process of getting exemption certificates for IT exporters will be automated to make things easier.

• Freelancers who earn up to $24,000 annually won't have to bother with sales tax registration or returns. They'll also have a simple one-page income tax form.

• No sales tax will be charged on laptops, PCs, notebooks, computer parts, and related devices.

• Certain parts of lithium batteries used in electronic devices, like smartphones and laptops, won't have sales tax either.

• The very popular and loved free laptops program are back again with budget allocation of Rs10 billion to provide 100,000 laptops to students.

It’s not all rainbows in tech-istan: While there were good news for gadget enthusiasts and freelancers, the tech and telecom sectors did not receive significant announcements and … they are pissed.

TLDR: The budget for fiscal year 2023-24 offers tax relief to the IT sector and freelancers, exempts sales tax on laptops and electronic components, and includes a free laptop program for students. However, the tech and telecom sectors are disappointed by the lack of significant announcements.

Tech tour of news

✶Despite Pakistan's commitment to maintaining free internet, it has imposed seven restrictions since the 2021 UN resolution, as reported by cybersecurity company and VPN provider Surfshark.

More interesting Itla (اطلاع) we consumed:

🕷 We got to watch the much anticipated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse movie and we must say.. that the anticipation was well-deserved. But what really amazed us was how the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse franchise revolutionized the world of animation with its unique "non-photorealistic rendering" technique. It completely changed the game and forced the entire industry to evolve. If you want to dive deeper into this fascinating topic, we've got you covered with an entertaining video by Vox that breaks it all down.