‘Budget does not reflect PTI’s promise’

LAHORE : The federal budget 2019-20 did not reflect the promise made by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of staring a new era in Pakistan and establishing Madina-like state.

These were the views of All Pakistan Workers Confederation General Secretary Khurshid Ahmad.

Kshursheed Ahmad said on Wednesday the ruling party had promised in its election manifesto to generate 10 million jobs for youths and building five million houses in the country for the poor but it remained still a far cry.

The labour leader asked the government to introduce agrarian reforms by providing land to landless peasants. He said the government should have raised the wages and pension of the workers at least 30 per cent. The workers of private industry sector are being paid monthly paltry pension of Rs 6,500 per month, he said. He demanded the prime minister that the wages and pension of the workers employed in the public and private sectors be raised in the proposed budget in accordance with the ratio of price hike.

majority of population ignored: The new economic pundits of Pakistan while presenting the fiscal budget for 2019-20 have miserably failed to evolve a strategy that would turn around the decelerating growth process, a forum said in a statement issued here on Wednesday.

The economic indices revealed in the Economic Survey report for 2018-2019 indicate the reverse growth in almost all sectors of the national economy. The agriculture sector has shown negative growth which is partly due to the neglect of the government shown towards the farmers in providing affordable inputs. The majority of country’s population has been ignored in the budget as rural folks are living a sub-human life, the Awami Mazahmat statement claims.

The farming sector remained stressed by the dearth of irrigation water but still the government has not expressed its willingness to augment the supply of much needed water to their crops. The lack of any planning in this regard would only lead to supplementing the stock of poverty in this country, it said.

Awami Mazahmat does not find any project in the new fiscal budget that would promote the manufacturing activity without which employment generation would remain a dream. The increased burden of taxes on construction material like steel bars and cement is also not expected to stimulate the housing or civil works activity that could have been a source of widely creating jobs for the non-skilled and semi-skilled labour, it said.

Awami Mazahmat does not consider that the budgetary measures are favourable for ordinary people because daily use items like food and fuel are taxed heavily while there is no scope to receive additional incomes to sustain living standard, it added. “In the present circumstances, where the outgoing budget indicates dwindling resource mobilisation, it is hardly expected that the new fiscal measures will be of any help to match the increasing expenditures, given the present level of debt servicing and defence spending.