–NA Opp leader Shehbaz Sharif says budget targets are ‘unrealistic’, country’s GDP contracted for the first time in 68 years
–PPP’s Sherry Rehman says she suspects govt will announce a ‘rolling budget every three months based on IMF’s push’
LAHORE: The opposition parties on Friday criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for what they called was an ‘anti-people’ budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
In a statement, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif termed the budget “anti-people”, saying that it would lead to increased inflation and unemployment.
“This is not a budget but a prescription for destruction,” he stated. “Whatever signs of economic progress are left in the country, will be ended because of the current government’s budget. The PTI government first tried to hide its inefficiency first behind PML-N and then behind the coronavirus pandemic.”
He questioned the government’s performance, noting that it was the first time the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) had contracted in 68 years. “The fiscal deficit has never been in two digits in the country’s history,” he added.
He said that the budget’s targets were “unrealistic” and there was concern that it would increase the difficulties of the people. He added that the incumbent government was the first one which was “unable to achieve its own targets for revenue, fiscal deficit and GDP growth”.
Shehbaz said the government could not “hide behind the corona pandemic”, saying that its performance was “dismal” even before the pandemic’s outbreak. “This budget has only been created to benefit the finances of PTI members and its allies,” he claimed.
“The revenue tax collection of Rs3,800 billion against the target of Rs5,555bn is far less than the tax collection by the PML-N government two years ago. Why did the production of cotton decrease by 6,9 per cent when it was not affected by corona?” he questioned.
“This government has increased the country’s debt by 30pc in two years and it plans to incur more debt so that the future of this country’s next generation will be kept mortgage in foreign banks,” he said.
PML-N senior leader Ahsan Iqbal also said that the PTI government even after two years was “unable to collect tax equal to that collected in the PML-N government’s last year”.
‘JUST AN ACCOUNTING EXERCISE’:
Pakistan People’s Party Senator Sherry Rehman said that the government “squandered a huge opportunity to change priorities” through the recent budget and termed it “just an accounting exercise led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)”.
In a tweet, she said that it was “not a national budget for a country facing a crisis”.
Speaking to a private news channel, Sherry Rehman said: “My real issue is that neither the opposition nor the finance commission was taken on board before announcing the budget. My suspicion is that they will announce a rolling budget every three months based on IMF’s push and the amount of loans they’ve taken means that we won’t be able to see much relief for the common man.”
She claimed that the PTI government had only “moved the numbers backwards and forwards”, adding that it was an “anti-Pakistan” budget.
