Bilawal terms govt ‘confused’ over economy
ISLAMABAD
Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar has said that out of Rs300 billion taxes proposed in the Finance Supplementary Bill 2021, Rs270 billion are adjustable taxes to document the economy.
Responding to the points of Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the National Assembly on Wednesday, he said the remaining taxes have been imposed only on luxury items.
The minister for energy said the government took difficult decisions to save the country from bankruptcy and steered it on the growth trajectory. He pointed out the economy grew by four percent during the last financial year and it is expected to touch five percent during the current financial year.
He said the tax collection is witnessing growth of thirty percent and will touch the level of six thousand billion rupees by the end of this fiscal year. Private sector credit has also witnessed an increase of fifty percent which is a manifestation that the economy is growing.
Hammad Azhar said the government has put the country again on the path of industrialisation and large-scale manufacturing is continuously witnessing growth. He said the crop growth has also doubled in our tenure compared with the previous regime. He said, “We are expecting record production of major crops this year.”
He said there has been growth of 25 to 30 percent in exports which will touch thirty billion dollars by the end of this financial year.
The minister for energy said the government is fully cognizant of the problem being faced by the people due to inflation. He said that the government disbursed about Rs200 billion amongst millions of deserving families under Ehsaas programme in the wake of Covid-19.
He said,”We are also providing the people with Insaaf Sehat Card under which each household is entitled to medical treatment worth Rs1 million.” He said the international community is appreciating Pakistan for successfully tackling the Covid pandemic.
The minister said that 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes of urea is being produced in the country on a daily basis. He said that urea prices in Pakistan are much lower when compared with the international market. He said we are providing uninterrupted gas to the fertilizers plants from November.
Earlier, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari censured the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government over the mini-budget that proposed ending tax exemptions on various goods to generate over Rs350 billion in taxes.
He said the mini-budget is proof that the government is confused about the economy. “We had said from the very first day that economic confusion was akin to the death of the economy,” he said.
The PTI government created hardships for people by initially saying that it wouldn’t go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bilawal said, adding that when they were forced to seek IMF’s help they struck a poor deal. “We said then that the ‘PTI-IMF’ budget would create difficulties for the poor segments of the society,” he added.
The PPP chief recalled that PML-N President and National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif had proposed a ‘charter for economy’ in 2019 and a similar proposal was floated by former president Asif Ali Zardari as well, but the government didn’t listen. “You ignored these suggestions and made unilateral decisions and now the nation can see the results,” the PPP chairperson added.
Bilawal said that never in the history of Pakistan had there been so many negative economic indicators. “When we were fighting a war, when the country split into two, or when it was facing sanctions, the economic growth never hit a negative 0.4,” he said. “The PTI has broken all records,” Bilawal remarked. “Naya Pakistan means unemployment, poverty, and inflation,” he said, adding that this was not “tabdeeli” (change) but “tabahi” (destruction).
He said the government had promised people economic development and no taxes, but it is proposing a “tsunami of taxes in January”. This budget will further result in unemployment and inflation, he said, adding that slashing the development budget by Rs250 billion will have an impact on every level.
The increase in petroleum prices as a result of the mini-budget will increase inflation, the PPP chief said, adding that taxes on 1,000cc vehicles were being increased by 100pc. “Vehicles, petrol, and cycles – everything has been made expensive,” he said, adding that the government is also proposing taxes on laptops and mobile internet.
Pakistan is an agricultural economy but the government ruined the national economy through its successive budgets, he added. “We had heard of enmity towards people and the poor, but this government has stooped down to enmity towards the country,” he added.
Meanwhile, the house resumed discussion on the Finance Supplementary Bill, 2021. PTI MNA Aliya Hamza said the national economy is on the growth trajectory due to prudent economic policies introduced by the government.
She said the country’s economy made significant progress that was evident from the fact that the listed business gained 59 percent profit despite an economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. She said the country’s gross domestic product growth rate stood at 3.98 percent in the last fiscal year.
She said that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government is confident of achieving the 5 percent GDP growth rate this year.
Taking part in the discussion, Akbar Chitrali said the successive governments have failed to provide relief to the common man. He said the prices of essential commodities will further increase as a result of the financial supplementary bill 2021. He said the government should reduce non development expenditures. TLTP
