- Khurshid Shah says government has taken huge loans from WB and IMF
Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Khurshid Shah on Friday said practice of getting foreign loans should be avoided as they put burden on the people.
Opening general discussion on the federal budget 2014-15, the opposition leader said local loans could be handled by printing currency notes but the foreign loans put national dignity at stake.
He reiterated that a budget-estimate committee should be formed to assess the whole budgetary process because it was parliament which finalises the finances.
Shah said the budget should reflect the public aspirations but unfortunately people’s life standards still remained unchanged.
He said the government should have tabled the budget before the House prior to announcing it, adding that the budget estimates should be made simple and legible to the people.
Shah said tax collection target of the ongoing fiscal was Rs 320 billion short and target of Rs 2,810 billion tax collection has been fixed for next fiscal that seems to be unrealistic.
He said after 18th Amendment, provinces were independent about their budget expenditures, so how the federal government pre-assumed that the provinces would not use Rs 289 billion as shown in the budget documents.
The opposition leader said the provinces should be allocated proper budget share and added that the government had taken record money from the World Bank and IMF. He said the provinces were not even consulted over the loan issue that would unnecessarily put liability on the federal government.