Public debt surges PKR 3.6tr to a hefty Rs27.8tr.

The government has added Rs3.6 trillion in public debt as of end March, taking total stock to Rs27.8 trillion, which is not in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan's promise to reduce the debt pile by one-third at the end of his term.

The central government's debt grew at a pace of 14.8percent from July through March of this fiscal year, reported the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday. The double-digit growth in the debt stock would not bode well for the government of Prime Minister Imran.

From July through March 2018-19, the government on an average added Rs13.2 billion a day to its debt, which included almost seven and a half months of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

The accumulation of debt is the direct result of the gap between expenditures and revenues, which is widening due to the inelasticity in debt servicing and defence needs and the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) failure to enhance revenue collection.

In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the FBR suffered a shortfall of Rs300 billion in revenue collection, which further widened to Rs345 billion at the end of April. The FBR's...