Opposition blames agriculture destruction, power outages on govt

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly (NA) Syed Khursheed Shah on Tuesday rejected the third budget of the PML-N government, describing it as “anti-poor, pro-rich and based on artificial economic perceptions with missing targets”.
Shah, who kicked off the budget debate, said the government had destroyed the agriculture sector, adding that it had also failed to control loadshedding. He demanded 25 percent increase in the salaries of government employees.
He saw nothing new in the budget, saying that it was a routine one with the finance minister admitting that it had missed all the major economic targets that were set in the last year’s budget.
“Finance Minister Ishaq Dar claimed breaking the begging bowl in his previous budget but Rs3,400 billion increase has been made in debt in the last two years,” he added.
Shah’s speech lasted two hours and 45 minutes. He rejected the government announcement of an increase of 7.5 percent raise in salaries and pensions of government employees and demanded a 25 percent increase. He also demanded 100 percent raise in the salaries of police. “The government claims that its financial position is strong, then why it does not raise the salaries of employees,” he added.
He came hard on the government on violating the Act of Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation, saying that the government had admitted that GDP and it was the clear violation of the Constitution as according to the Act, the debt ratio should not be increased by 60 percent of the GDP.
The opposition took on the government on the issue of loadshedding questioning why Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was not holding protests at Minar-e-Pakistan as he did during the PPP tenure.
He said despite decrease in prices of petroleum products, power tariff still stood at the average Rs16 while during the PPP tenure, it was not raised despite high petroleum prices.Shah said when the PPP in its tenure started to import LNG, the court took a suo moto notice and the French company had to leave the project. ”But now no one knows the rate at which the LNG is being imported,” he added.
The opposition leader also came hard on the government for withdrawing the subsidy in the budget saying Rs137 billion subsidy had been withdrawn which was being provided to the people. “But the question is that at a time when the government claims that economy is showing positive trend, why they have withdrawn the subsidy,” he added.
He said the opposition stood shoulder to shoulder with the government to defend the state. “Dictators ruled the country for 40 years but none of them was hanged or sent on exile. Only political leaders were hanged and exiled,” he said.
He said Parliament could defend the territorial borders of the country and resolve people’s problems. He said on the one hand, the government was withdrawing subsidy and on the other, it was giving Rs2 billion per annum to metro bus project. “As much as Rs45 billion has been spent on metro bus project. It was estimated that daily 130,000 people will travel on it. On the other hand, on Green Line Bus Project in Karachi, Rs16 billion will be spent and 300,000 people will benefit from it,” he added.
He demanded new NFC Award and more attention and resources on primary education and health. He recalled that suo moto action was taken on 3G and 4G agreements but the opposition did not create hurdles in auction of these spectrums. “We give priority to state and its interests,” the opposition leader said. Shah criticised power generation projects completed by the PML-N government, saying Nandipur project has been completed at a cost of Rs56 billion whereas its actual cost was Rs22 billion. “Through this project, generation of each power unit will cost Rs49. It has not been operated for a single day whereas it was to generate 450 MW of electricity,” he said.
He said the government also claimed to generate 100 MW of electricity from Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park whereas its average capacity is not more than 21 MW. He said ground-breaking ceremony of 5000 MW Gadani power project was performed but the plan was nowhere in sight.
Criticising privatisation policy of the PML-N government, he said the government sold out 41% shares of Habib Bank for Rs102 crore where the bank showed a profit of Rs48 billion adding that precious land of Heavy Mechanical Complex was also soled out for just Rs950 million. “Such policies are painful and we do not believe in such privatisation,” he said.
Shah said there should be an amendment in the Finance Bill mentioning that no mini budgets would be presented during the upcoming financial year. On taxation policy, the opposition leader said that taxing the poultry sector and the agriculture sector would have negative impact on poor man. He regretted that tax exemption had been given on spare parts of aircraft.
He advised the government to pay attention to agriculture sector and give relief to the farmers. He called for such policies which save growers of rice and wheat. “No relief has been announced in prices of fertilizers, electricity for growers and pesticides,” he said.
He observed that the government had also badly failed in achieving target of GDP growth rate saying it was set to achieve target 5.1% whereas it remained at 4.02%.He said All Parties Conference should be convened to discuss the issue of rapid population growth.
PML-N’s Daniyal Aziz started his speech, when a PTI legislator pointed out quorum. During the counting, the PML-N lawmakers rushed to the house and completed the quorum.Aziz said they have to resolve the problems like new NFC Award and full implementation of 18th Amendment through collective thinking. He said the government has fixed a target of thirty thousand solar power tube-wells to enhance irrigation water availability which will help increase agriculture production.
He said the PPP government had not stopped privatisation but initiated a scheme to sell shares to the workers which is also a kind of privatisation. Aziz said the Leader of the Opposition claimed that they had given 125 percent increase in the salary of government employee but he pointed out that inflation rate was 21 to 22 percent during third year of the PPP government. He said the present government brought it down to four percent.
The IMF programme with Pakistan is going on successfully and now it is at the stage of seventh revenue. He said due to measures taken by the government Railways has been revived and performance of PIA has been improved. He said that PPP government has signed numerous MoUs with China but the end result was nothing. He said the present government succeeded to bring historic 46 billion dollars investment in Pakistan from China.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) also come hard on the budget and rejected it as anti-poor and pro-rich. PTI’s Asad Umar was of the view that Rs650 billion incentives and concessions were given to the rich through SROs. He proposed income tax on the income from agriculture.
Umar criticised the government for presenting Rs139 billion Supplementary Grants which were Rs65 billion last year. He said PML-N government formulates policies for the benefit of the rich.
He criticised that GST on diesel has been enhanced to 34 percent and proposed that it should be reduced to 15 percent and onward to 12.5 percent for the benefit of the people. He said Rs277 billion circular debt is a burden on the people and not a single line was mentioned about it. The amount of circular debt would be taken from the pockets of the people but it is not mentioned in the budget speech, he added.
He demanded that GST should be reduced to 15 percent and it will be brought to 12.5 percent during the next two years as it will benefit the people and the business. He also demanded withdrawal of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC). He said at least 15 percent increase should be given to the government employees in their salaries and minimum wage and pension should be fixed at 15000 rupees per month.
He suggested net assets tax to reduce the rich-poor gap and capital Gain tax on property. He said FBR should be made autonomous and free of interference to enhance revenue. He demanded special development fund of 25 billion rupees to provide basic facilities to the residence of Islamabad.
Senior leader of the MQM, Dr Farooq Sattar said it is a traditional budget which is for the privileged people. He said the government has missed different targets of economy including GDP growth rate.
He said no measure has been proposed in the budget to decrease the prices of essential commodities. He demanded reduction in prices of electricity, gas, oil and fertilizer by abolishing GST on them. He said a just system of taxes should be enforced and every taxable income should be taxed. He demanded reduction in sales and indirect taxes.