What happened
Pakistan’s federal government postponed the presentation of its budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, settling on 10 June after the ruling coalition failed to resolve spending disputes in time for the original 5 June date.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said in a statement on 3 June that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb met senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders for pre-budget consultations, and that “it was unanimously agreed to recommend to Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif that the Budget for fiscal year 2026-2027 be announced on Wednesday, 10 June 2026”.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry had earlier confirmed the new date, telling a television programme that the initial proposal of 5 June had been moved to 10 June, and attributing the delay to the need to win over coalition allies. Sessions of both houses of parliament had been summoned for 5 June.
Separately, a National Economic Council (NEC) meeting that was to be chaired by the prime minister on 3 June was postponed because of unresolved questions over the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), power-sector subsidies and how social safety spending under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) would be treated. Officials said it was expected on 4 or 5 June. Citing people involved in the discussions, the finance ministry had sought the International Monetary Fund’s consent to revise major expenditure heads, and the IMF asked for the proposed changes and their justification.
Why it matters
The postponement exposed the coalition and fiscal pressures around the budget at the start of the new fiscal year. According to officials involved in the discussions, the unresolved items included the size of the development budget: a proposed federal PSDP of 1.126 trillion rupees that Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said was negative by 15 billion rupees in real terms, with the prime minister asking the finance ministry to find room for another 200 billion rupees.
Other sticking points were about 830 billion rupees proposed for power subsidies, including 300 billion rupees to settle the costs of inefficiencies, theft and weak bill recovery, and roughly 838 billion rupees for BISP payments and administration. The government wanted the provinces to assume at least half of the BISP burden, which they were unwilling to do, and was seeking additional fiscal space of 1.7 trillion rupees from the four provinces through changes linked to the National Finance Commission award. It also wanted customs duties excluded from the divisible pool, a move some stakeholders opposed.
The delay also touched tariff policy. Pakistan has committed to the IMF to cut its simple average tariff from 20.2 per cent in 2025 to 9.7 per cent by 2030, and must reduce it further to 13 per cent from next month. A Tariff Policy Board meeting due to approve those reductions was postponed. The macroeconomic targets themselves had already been cleared on 1 June, when the Annual Plan Coordination Committee endorsed the 2026-27 growth framework, which KhabarWire reported here.
Accounts of the internal negotiations come from officials and people involved in the discussions, as reported by the cited outlets. The finance ministry did not comment on the reasons for the postponement.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a summary of published reporting, not independent reporting. Details and attributions are as carried by the cited sources, which were reviewed on 2026-06-03.
- Pakistan Today — "Budget postponed amid IMF talks, coalition disputes"3 June 2026 · Reports the delay, the IMF discussions and the unresolved PSDP, power-subsidy and BISP figures.
- Dawn — "Parliamentary affairs minister says budget to be presented on June 10"3 June 2026 · Carries the minister's confirmation of the new date and the NEC meeting on the macro framework.
- Radio Pakistan — "DPM, Finance Minister, PPP leaders hold pre-budget consultations"3 June 2026 · Official account of the government-PPP agreement to recommend 10 June.
