ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former planning minister Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government should incorporate a workable roadmap in the amended finance bill in order to create job opportunities and revive the economy for ensuring prosperity in the country.
He said this while participating in a debate on The Finance Supplementary (Amendment) Bill, 2018, in the National Assembly.
The former minister said that the budget documents lack vision and provide no policy to steer the country’s economy out of crisis and turn it into a competitive force.
He said the continuity of policies and economic stability was needed for the country’s prosperity.
The PML-N leader lamented that the PTI government continued to deny the success achieved in the last five years and warned that the reversal of policies would severely damage the country’s reputation.
He said the government has not given any concrete plan to plug in the Rs2.2 trillion deficit, rather it has only provided a Rs183 billion plan to counter the deficit. He further criticised the fact that there was no plan to take back Rs19 per kg tax being levied on sugar and 45 per cent tax imposed on powdered milk.
Ahsan further said the budget also missed a roadmap regarding the provision of 2 million jobs this year, as promised by the PTI in its agenda. Moreover, he demanded the government to restore the slashed Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
