ISLAMABAD, Jun 16 (NNI): Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has allayed apprehensions of one of coalition government’s partners regarding the ‘populist budget’ presented by him despite economic uncertainty.
Dar was giving briefing to the members of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance on Friday.
During the debate, the Pakistan Peoples Party was critical of the PMLN-led government for presenting an ‘unrealistic’ and ‘election-oriented budget’ in the face of economic uncertainty.
PPP’s Nafeesa Shah rued that the Shehbaz-led government had told the parliamentarians that the budget would be tough but no tough decisions were made in the budget. She was of the view that the economic disaster was looming as the IMF was pressuring the government and delaying the review, hence there was no disbursement.
The finance minister confessed that there was an extraordinary delay in the ninth review of the IMF due to which the budget strategy paper was also delayed.
However, rejecting the impression that the government presented expansionary budge in the election year, Dar said even if there was no election, the country would have to be taken out of zero percent growth. He was hopeful that the country would easily achieve 3.5% growth rate in the next financial year.
He said that in the budget they focused on empowerment of youth and women, and skill development. Special emphasis is given on the growth of Information Technology and SMEs in the budget, he maintained.
“Even if there was no election, the budget would have been presented in the same way,” he reiterated, adding that the average inflation this year is 29 percent and the core inflation is 20 percent.
Dar opined that the government employees were economically the most hard-pressed segment of society. Pensioners have also been given relief in proportion to inflation, he added.
The finance minister said that the FBR’s annual tax target of Rs9,200 billion was not unrealistic, rather it was set on realistic basis. He explained that the tax target is set according to the growth rate. He said that the new tax measures of Rs223 billion were included in the budget.
The finance Czar announced that 900,000 new taxpayers were registered this year instead of a target of 700,000.
On this occasion, Chairman NA Committee on Finance Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh also highlighted the issue of containers at Karachi port. He said that no action was taken against those banks which refrained from opening letters of credit (LCs) due to which containers were stuck at ports, and no action was taken against those who manipulated the dollar rate.
Dar explained that he had sought report on the delay regarding clearance of the containers stuck at the Karachi port.
He also vowed to bring the Pakistani rupee’s value back to its original position. He was of the view that the US dollar’s bloated appreciation was artificial, vowing to salvage the undervalued rupee. NNI
