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Thursday March 28, 2024

‘Allocate more resources for education, health’

By our correspondents
May 04, 2016

LAHORE

More resources should be allocated for education, health, national security and other social sectors in the forthcoming annual budget. Exports and new employment opportunities will boost with the growth of agriculture and industry. 

These views were expressed by the panelists at Jang Economic Session on ‘Expectations of youth and women with Budget 2016-17’. The speakers were Prof Shaida Saleem, Dr Qurate-ul-ain, Dr Aysha Azam, Nabeela Intesar, students Maliha Batool, Mehak Zara and Anam Fatima while the session was hosted by Sikindar Lodhi.

Prof Shaida Saleem said budget should not be made on political agenda rather on national interests to achieve national growth targets. Internal and external security is important issues of Pakistan for which strong economy is unavoidable while employment generation is crucial to eradicate terrorism and social sector budget should also be increased. She said ignoring the rural economy by the successive governments caused inflation and reduced people’s purchasing power. She called for focusing on textile and other industrial sectors in the budget and good governance is crucial to achieve economic targets. She stressed for reducing indirect taxes to improve living standard. Access to market to farmers can resolve food security and exploitation of framers from stockiest can be controlled. 

Dr Qurate-ul-ain said national security and promotion of tax culture should be focused in the budget while comprehensive tax reforms can helpful for balanced taxation system. She said luxury items should be discouraged, while special incentives should be given to hosiery and manufacturing sectors. She called for reducing the indirect taxes, constructing the new dams to avert water shortages and storing rainwater to save agriculture sector from water scarcity. She said development funds should be spent on long-term growth oriented projects. 

Dr Aysha Azam said rural population should be focused in the budget while utilisation of budget resource on public welfare project can increase public interest and encourage paying taxes.

She said easy taxation system can promote the tax culture. She called for increasing health budget and taking measures to reduce medicines’ prices, discouraging imports and allocating special resources for agriculture and industry. 

Nabeela Intesar said if the budget will make on the ground realities then better results can be derived. She suggested long-term agricultural policy, promotion of cottage and SME sectors to increase national productivity. She said equal education, health and civic facilities should be provided to urban and rural population. Incentives for home-based working women should be given to eradicate poverty.

Students Maliha Batool, Mehak Zara and Anam Fatima said equal opportunities for vocational and technical education should be ensured through budgetary decisions. They said employment generation can control terrorism. Industrialisation is crucial for employment generation while child care and other social welfare projects should be focused in the budget, they said.