–Opp leader says parliament doesn’t have the mandate to present the sixth budget
–Haroon Akhtar defends the budget, says opp should avoid point-scoring
With the opening of debate on the federal budget 2018-19 in the upper house of the parliament on Monday, the opposition took the federal government to task over what they called for presenting an anti-people and anti-poor budget.
Leader of Opposition in the Senate Sherry Rehman said that the country is under the heavy burden of foreign loans which would be difficult to repay and would thus put the country’s sovereignty at stake.
During her hour-long speech, Sherry argued what was the premise of appointing a finance minister overnight if there was no emergency situation.
“We totally reject this lame duck government’s lame-duck budget. On what basis is this budget locking Pakistan into choices for the next year when their term is ending? This is pre-poll rigging through and through,” she said in her hard-hitting speech.
Sherry Rehman noted, “It is shocking that there is no minister on the floor to answer. If this is not a mockery of the parliament then what is? The government should stop mocking state institutions by not consulting them on these crucial matters. The ‘sanctity of vote’ cannot just be involved to protect the ruling party from answering to the people.”
“The opposition is working in line with the constitution. This budget is unconstitutional, politically and morally wrong. The government does not have the mandate to present the sixth budget. We do not accept this ill-advised budget. We will protest inside and outside the parliament,” the Senate opposition leader said.
She argued that while the federal government had failed to present the 8th NFC award in the past five years, it was going to present a full year budget while its term was ending in a month’s time.
“There is no revenue stream to meet targets and expenditures. But the entire budget is based on three Bs – Borrowing, Billionaires and Barbadi. In borrowing, the government plans to take 22 trillion public debt. More debt means more to pay back. The World Bank too has said that Pakistan will have to raise USD17 billion to meet current account deficit and debt repayments,” she argued.
She said this budget is therefore unconstitutional.
“How can they determine where the Federal Economic Fund without the 8th NFC award? This is indeed an economic emergency as Pakistan Today has mentioned in its report. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has already borrowed USD40 billion in the past four years. Euro bond has to be returned in July. More Euro bonds will be raised and loans will be taken from China too,” she argued.
The opposition leader said that all indirect taxes with a room for 200 per cent rise in petrol prices and 400 per cent on kerosene have been planned. The burden would be on the poor with the petroleum tax that the government is quietly introducing.
“This is a billionaires’ budget. Right now a few cronies are being obliged with taxation exemptions but the tax base is down from one million to 700,000. To this day, we do not know what is under the black ink used to block transparency on the contract with Qatar Gas,” she added.
She said that the government is taxing all of Pakistanis on gas while exempting the imported LNG from Qatar.
Explaining the term ‘Barbadi’, she said that there will be a way to make payments on import bill of Pakistan by July and the next government will be lucky if it is able to go to the IMF.
“The FBR chief must have a migraine the size of Asia as there is no way Pakistan will come out of this without a crisis. The circular debt is reaching Rs1 trillion. The textile industry with 57 per cent of exports has been made a graveyard,” she argued.
The opposition leader said that relaxations have been given to big businesses in the new budget while the relief for poor has been ignored. She said that an increase in petroleum levy will result in high prices of petroleum products which will put additional strain on the working class. She said that her party will continue the struggle in the parliament to uphold the supremacy of the august institution and constitution.
Explaining the government’s plan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Revenue Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan said that the opposition should avoid political point-scoring as it creates a bad image of the country in the comity of nations. He said that the biggest indicator of the economy is GDP growth and it reflects the strength of economy which has improved from 3.3 per cent to 5.8 per cent.
He said that the economic situation was improving due to the steps being taken by the government. He said that during the current fiscal, the exports have increased by 13 per cent. He claimed that another 10,000 megawatts of power would be added to the national grid in next few years.
He also said that if the continuity of policies was ensured, the revenue generation would increase with the ratio of GDP growth. He said that the growth rate had been increased from 2.2 per cent in 2013 to 5.8 per cent. He said that the services sector had grown to 6.43 per cent from 5.13 in the year 2013. He said the agriculture sector was growing at the pace of 3.81 per cent.
He further said that the large steel manufacturing was at 2.98 per cent in 2013 while it had grown by 6.24 per cent today, adding that improvement had been witnessed in cement industry, the auto industry and construction business too.
He said that the CPI inflation was over 8 per cent in the year 2013 while it had been brought down by 3.78 per cent. The minister said food inflation was 7.9 per cent in the year 2013 while it was 2 per cent now, adding that foreign remittances stood at USD13 billion while the same had grown over USD20 billion.
He said that the foreign exchange reserves were USD11.85 billion while it had grown over USD17 billion today. He said per capita income was USD1333 back in the year 2013 while it had increased up to USD1640.
The minister said that the allocation for Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) was Rs46.5 billion in the year 2013 while the PML-N government had taken it to Rs121 billion in the year 2018, a three times increase in the allocation. The Senate session was adjourned to meet on Wednesday at 3pm.