Govt went beyond mandate over budget, says Siraj

LAHORE : Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has said the present government which is completing its term after two months has no right to present budget for the full year.

The PML-N government has gone beyond its mandate and deprived the next elected government of its constitutional right to present the next year’s budget, he said while commenting on the federal budget on Friday.

On the merits of the budget, he said, the next year’s deficit budget presented a picture of a poor economy being run on loans which exposed all government claims of development and prosperity. He said there was nothing in the budget for the tribal areas or any big package for Karachi. Likewise, the raise in salaries and pensions was not commensurate with the increase in prices. He said the government had failed to provide relief to the masses in view of the fall in the petroleum products' prices in the world market. No special effort had been made to improve the situation in the education and health sectors, he added.

Sirajul Haq said that for the presentation of budget, the government had allocated the office of a federal minister to a person who was neither a member of the parliament nor an elected person. "It won’t be wrong to term it an unconstitutional budget of a non-elected government," he added. He said the value of the US dollar had risen to Rs118 and no attempt had been made to bring down dollar rate or to control prices. Similarly, he said, there was no move to create jobs opportunities. There was no planning in the federal budget to grant the provinces their constitutional rights, he added.

Meanwhile, The Jamaat-e-Islami has condemned the hundred percent raise in the fee for computerised national identity card (CNIC), and called for its immediate withdrawal.

JI spokesman Amirul Azeem wrote a letter to the Nadra chairman on Friday alleging that the Nadra move suggested that instead of providing identity to the citizens, Nadra was selling people of Pakistan their national identity.

Amirul Azeem said it was the constitutional responsibility of the government to provide identity to its citizens and the governments carried on their duties through the taxes collected from the general public.

The JI spokesman said the fee being charged for the issuance of a CNIC was already higher than in the neighbouring countries, and any increase in it was unjustified.

Amirul Azeem asked the Nadra chairman to inform the general public how much amount Nadra was collecting from the issuance of CNICs annually besides the amounts collected from other heads.

No incentives on agri machinery: The federal government has not announced any significant relief for promoting use of agriculture machinery and implements in the farm sector, claimed an industry representative here on Friday.

Amjad Ali Amjad, Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Machinery & Implements Manufacturers Association (PAMIMA) while commenting on federal budget 2018-19 said that two percent GST reduction on agriculture machinery was meagre and it should have been abolished fully. Moreover, he added further tax of two percent in addition to GST should also be removed as end user i.e. farmers are not mostly registered tax payers.