2023-24 budget: JI demands tax on landlords, subsidy on utilities

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami emir Sirajul Haq expressed serious concerns over government’s failure to curtail non-developmental expenditures, protocol culture and corruption. Addressing to youth delegation at Mansoorah on Tuesday, the JI chief said the government has no plan of economic revival, rather it is relying on IMF and accepting its tough conditions. Siraj lamented that the government had borrowed nearly Rs150 billion in a year - Rs4.1 billion a day - and most of the amount was spent on non-development expenditures including hefty salaries, perks, privileges and protocol of rulers and bureaucracy.

He demanded that rulers must show courage to rid the country of the IMF and said the change can only come when poor workers, educated people and youth make to the assemblies. If the incumbent rulers remain in power for the next 100 years, they cannot change the condition of the country, said the JI chief, adding the people will have to decide their own destiny, and the only option for bringing real change and establishing Islamic system is to bring JI to power. Sirajul Haq said PTI wasted four years of the nation, and the current setup is following the suit without bringing an iota of improvement.

Having a large cabinet for a poor country is the height of cruelty, and the prime minister may not even know the names of all the ministers and secretaries, the emir JI jibed. JI demands abolishment of interest, direct taxes on income instead of indirect taxes on poor, taxes on the agricultural income of the landlords, reduction of the food items by 50 percent and subsidy on petrol, electricity & gas in the upcoming budget, said Sirajul Haq. He warned if the people do not get relief in the budget, they would come on the streets against the government. He deplored that despite the majority of JI in Karachi local bodies, the PPP’s stubbornness to have its mayor elected was a highly undemocratic attitude. Sindh government rigged the local bodies elections but still the people of Karachi supported JI candidates as the party has a history of serving the city, he said, adding that the JI could bring back the lights of Karachi.